| 摘要 |
Section 7 of the Clayton Act, 15 USC § 18, prohibits mergers that substantially lessen competition, which has generally been interpreted to prohibit mergers that reduce consumer welfare. Determining whether consumer welfare is reduced in any particular market requires a balancing of the procompetitive and anticompetitive effects of the transaction. The present invention provides a method for analyzing mergers and balancing the efficiencies and anticompetitive effects to determine whether a merger is overall beneficial or neutral for consumer welfare. The method utilizes the risk-adjusted, net present value (NPV) for both the competitive effects and the efficiencies of the merger then determines whether a particular merger should be challenged as anticompetitive based on an analysis of this NPV. |
