International Financial Law Review’s April 30 article “Proposed merger ban will do more harm than good” covers the proposed moratorium on mergers during the COVID-19 public health crisis. From the article:
“Allowing this proposal to move forward with these exceptions might actually create additional pressure or accelerate proposed acquisitions of smaller rivals. Bigger firms targeting smaller, potentially failing firms is not okay,” said Diana Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute. “That that is an exempted form of consolidation.”
“This was a concern anyway given the higher levels of concentration, the emergence of large firms and a pattern of acquisitions,” she added. “Allowing that to move forward under the moratorium might actually accelerate those types of proposals. That is not something that we would want to see in the longer term.”
