After a year of scrutiny, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
resolved its competitive concerns over the merger of two firms that
provide commercial real estate (CRE) listings and other data. In
April 2011, CoStar Group, Inc. announced plans to acquire
LoopNet, Inc. for approximately $860 million. Two days
ago, the FTC announced that it had approved a consent decree with
CoStar and LoopNet, which sets forth the conditions to which the
parties agreed for the merger to proceed. Click here to view the
FTC's announcement and the underlying papers.
The consent decree not only requires the divestiture of
LoopNet's interest in Xceligent, which the FTC describes as a
"significant provider" of CRE information in the
U.S., but also provides for a number of conduct remedies meant to
help Xceligent replace the competition lost by the merger. The
FTC is increasingly using conduct provisions in consent decrees to
help remedy perceived harm to competition.
