The Federal Trade Commission is changing its review process, which may force companies to navigate a new landscape dotted with closing delays and heightened concerns about deals being broken up down the road, according to Bloomberg Law.
On Aug. 3, the FTC said it will tell affected companies that it is unable to complete a review of their deals in 30 days as laid out in the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. The FTC said it will send letters to companies that say its investigation is ongoing and that their deal may still be declared unlawful.
While the FTC always has had a right to undo mergers, companies often assumed that if the FTC doesn't try to block the merger within 30 days, that it deemed the deal to generally be compliant with antitrust laws, according to Bloomberg Law.
According to attorneys who spoke with Bloomberg, the FTC's plan to send letters warning about the backlog upends decades of M&A precedent where companies expected to close deals when the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act 30-day review period ended.
Read more here.