We analyze the effects of synergies from horizontal mergers in a Cournot oligopoly where principals provide their … order to reduce her agency costs. Whenever this incentive effect dominates the well-known direct synergy effect, synergies … agents with incentives to cut marginal costs prior to choosing output. We stress that synergies come at a cost which possibly …

acquirer firm to learn the merger synergies with the target firm in advance. The realization of a synergy is uncertain ex ante … initial minority share, becomes an insider, and learns the merger synergy. We show how this feature of PPOs affects a firm …'s takeover strategy and the decision problem of the antitrust authority. We derive implications for a merger control approach to …

to the merger. We show that a PPO reduces the minimal synergy level necessary to make a merger beneficial for consumers …We analyze horizontal mergers when the acquirer holds a passive partial ownership stake (PPO) in the target firm prior …. It follows that an antitrust authority ignoring existing PPOs when evaluating merger proposals (which reflects the …