This paper examines whether cartel breakdown provokes a period of intensive merger activity amongst the former …

We analyze the welfare effects of structural remedies on merger activity in a Cournot oligopoly if the antitrust agency …

Mergers and acquisitions shape industry competition. Effective merger remedies are important for market efficiency and …-phase, bifurcated merger control system. This system integrates ex-ante processes with more systematic and comprehensive ex … merger control in dynamic markets. …

to the merger. We show that a PPO reduces the minimal synergy level necessary to make a merger beneficial for consumers …. It follows that an antitrust authority ignoring existing PPOs when evaluating merger proposals (which reflects the … current EU merger control regime) invites sneaky takeovers: Acquiring firms strategically use PPOs prior to a full merger …

's takeover strategy and the decision problem of the antitrust authority. We derive implications for a merger control approach to … acquirer firm to learn the merger synergies with the target firm in advance. The realization of a synergy is uncertain ex ante …, so that a direct merger exhibits a downside risk not only for the merging candidates but also for consumers. We show that …

prosecution. From a normative perspective, we show that merger policy is crucial when cost synergies are small (or nonexistent …