This chapter aims to review data-driven mergers including, but not limited to, major conglomerates involving large scale of individual user data, known as ‘big data', by Facebook (WhatsApp), Microsoft (Yahoo!, Skype and LinkedIn), Google (Double Click), TomTom (Tele Atlas), Publicis/Omnicon,...

The co-legislators adopted the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in July 2022. The text is landmark legislation that imposes a list of ex-ante obligations and interdictions on large online platforms acting as “gatekeepers” in some core platform services (CPS). Yet, the DMA also imposes an obligation...

Large digital platforms acquired 1149 firms in various economic sectors between 1987 and July 2022. The European Commission reviewed only 21 of these mergers as most did not meet the European Union merger control turnover threshold. This suggests under-enforcement, with some problematic mergers...

This paper conducts a retrospective analysis of a unique merger between two low cost carriers: Southwest Airlines and AirTran Airways. The paper begins with a detailed study of price effects for a variety of routes affected by the merger such as overlapping markets, markets where either carrier...

This paper examines the evolution of national competition (antitrust) policies and enforcement approaches vis-à-vis intellectual property rights (IPRs) and associated anti-competitive practices in major jurisdictions over the past several decades. It focuses especially on the underlying process...

One of the most striking and undertheorized aspects of fields that commercialize patented technologies is the dynamic interplay of structural forces pushing toward consolidation. Of course, technological industries are complex ecosystems featuring numerous players of different sizes along the...

Empirical evidence suggests that many mergers do not increase profits of the participating firms and decrease welfare. Due to the globalization of markets we should take an international view on mergers and their welfare effects. This paper develops a Bertrand-model of an international...

We explore the question of whether wireless industry mergers invariably reduce sector employment and find the answer is "no." We reach this conclusion by looking at four years of data on employment trends surrounding the largest wireless merger to date - the AT&T-Cingular merger in 2004, and two...

Antitrust policy and mergers provide a steady source of material for economic analysis, both theoretical and empirical. This is no surprise; in few other areas are the problems so obviously economic, so practical, and of such substantial policy significance. Seminal articles in economics such as...

Delay due to multiple merger reviews in regulated industries is analysed empirically. Tests on a sample of over 500 mergers between 1990 and 1998 reveal that delay is 80% longer in regulated industries than unregulated industries