Mergers & Acquisitions and Competition

To succeed in merger and acquisition (“M&A”) efforts, regulatory and enforcement authorities, law firms and the corporations involved must have a deep and nuanced understanding of markets, potential competitive effects and gains and current M&A policy across jurisdictions and geographies. These organizations engage FTI Consulting when they need expert support to help analyze options, determine the best course of action and effectively manage the massive amounts of data involved with M&A transactions. Based around the globe, our senior professionals have unrivaled expertise in analyzing and articulating the competitive effects and consumer benefits of mergers and acquisitions, especially in complex and dynamic markets such as healthcare, technology and networks.

Beyond transactions and M&A, government agencies at the state, federal or international level may need to assess the state of competition in an industry. Doing so includes addressing concerns over market consolidation, dynamic market changes, new regulations or revisions of old regulations, deregulation of industries, consumer protection policies or even new business practices. Government agencies, companies and law firms in industries in these contexts need a deep understanding of markets, market conditions (including current and future supply and demand) and the role of regulation and competition.

How We Help

Busy legal teams and clients need a trusted and expert advisor to successfully navigate and manage non-legal aspects across all facets of a transaction from planning to completion, to analyze and explain the competitive effects of the transaction, and to help parties assess and demonstrate the value of deals. Our expertise includes the most complex matters that occur with filings in multiple jurisdictions around the globe, and the increasingly complex requirements of new guidelines before state, federal or international agencies. Global law firms involved in antitrust agency review, as well as multinational corporations considering cross-border transactions and affiliations, engage us for our advisory services that cover the entire scope of activity within the M&A life cycle. For these, we regularly analyze competitive effects and benefits and present evidence before or on behalf of regulatory authorities on both horizontal and vertical deals. Both buy-side and sell-side corporations and investors rely on us to understand their existing contractual obligations and opportunities during or immediately after the transaction closes. Private equity firms also retain us as economists for market scoping when they are considering transaction possibilities.

Our team includes former government economists and practitioners as well as economic experts with extensive private practice experience in M&A review across virtually all industries. Additionally, we serve as advisors and experts to the full range of regulatory agencies worldwide that oversee antitrust and competition matters, including broader market inquiries and evaluation of regulation or deregulation. We employ the same empirical models used by authorities to assess the competitive effects of transactions. In addition, when required, we utilize predictive analytics to test market scenarios and effects, including the likelihood of successful divestitures or other remedies to address potential competitive concerns, and we advise on the competitive aspects of transactions from conception to completion.

FTI Consulting is also a leader in merger control matters, including U.S. Hart-Scott-Rodino Second Requests, Canadian Supplementary Information Requests (“SIR”) and UK/European Phase II merger control investigations. Our global team includes authorities on antitrust law and procedure, expert technologists, data scientists and multilingual reviewers. Working closely with counsel, we can quickly and defensibly collect all forms of enterprise data, review and analyze it with leading AI and analytics technology and workflows and produce materials to regulators within tight timeframes. Our deep experience with the relevant regulatory bodies, combined with our vetted playbooks and use of leading-edge technology and workflows means data is gathered and analyzed quickly, helping to refine the focus of an investigation and contribute to the best possible outcomes.

Having assisted with many of the highest-profile, most complex global antitrust and M&A actions and transactions, and major market inquiries and competition policy in many industries, our experts bring extensive training and experience to develop a thorough understanding of the issues, apply relevant economic theory and provide rigorous economic analyses supported by solid and persuasive empirical evidence. FTI Consulting brings unique expertise from across practices to inform these issues. We work with and before agencies on the most complex competition matters to develop and present analyses to inform regulatory and competition policy.

In addition, FTI Consulting provides a broad range of M&A data solutions that incorporate enterprise data into the broader deal strategy to produce real benefits, from accelerated deal close to protecting shareholder value. This can include safely transferring valuable IP, guarding sensitive customer data, expediting contract and privacy/cybersecurity-related due diligence exercises to help clear regulatory hurdles, readying the organization for an effective day one and successfully integrating multiple teams and processes after day one.

Partner with us to benefit from our decades of experience and expertise in:

• Evaluation of competitive effects, efficiencies, and benefits of transactions, affiliations, or business arrangements and assistance at all stages
• Comprehensive assessment and defining markets
• Empirical analyses and assessments of market conditions that affect entry and expansion
• Evaluation of remedies and conditions, including in regulatory and litigation contexts and their efficacy in addressing competitive concerns
• Comprehensive compliance with Second Requests, Supplementary Information Requests (“SIR”) and Phase II merger review procedures, including extensive experience with the latest data requirements from specific regulatory agencies, defensible methodologies for handling emerging data sources and leveraging AI and predictive coding, advanced analytics and keyword generation to reduce legal spend and expedite response timelines
• Assessment and management of multifaceted risks, opportunities, and stakeholder relationships during M&A transactions or policy and regulatory changes
• Strategic and rapid response communications support for companies facing potential or existing antitrust challenges
• Data solutions to protect and manage valuable IP and enterprise data in accordance with M&A goals