A March 16 CTFN article, “NXP/Qualcomm Antitrust Delays Related to History of Complaints,” explores whether Qualcomm’s history of antitrust complaints is contributing to the length of the European Commission’s EU merger control review of NXP Semiconductors and Qualcomm.
Brussels partner Matthew Hall, quoted in the article, noted that Qualcomm allowed more than a year and a half to get to closing, which may indicate that the company expected problems or at least extensive investigation and inquiry. He added, however, that there is still sufficient time remaining to get through the process.
“An interesting issue is that the deal would bring together two companies the European Commission knows well,” he said. “The commission will use its knowledge of these two companies and does take account in merger control review, the past behavior of the firms in the market …. That said, for these two companies, either nothing was proven nor has investigation been concluded. So, the knowledge would probably only be used as background, helping with questionnaires and the overall analysis.”