20 May 2025
Pre-Deal Antitrust Due Diligence: The Benefits of an Overlap Analysis
Look before you leap. That is good advice for many things in life, including entering into a risky antitrust transaction. Given the aggressiveness of the antitrust agencies in reviewing deals and the HSR pre-merger process, it may be wise to analyze how an investigating agency may view a specific deal. Otherwise, you may end up with a surprised and unhappy client.
As antitrust deal counsel, review our detailed How to Do an Antitrust Overlap Analysis practice note, with step-by-step instructions, on how to recreate the agencies’ structural Merger Guidelines analysis and our other materials on dealing with antitrust risk in deals in Practical Guidance - Antitrust: Mergers and Acquisitions. The practice note also offers general advice on how deals may be changed to avoid or mitigate antitrust risk.
Related Content
- DOJ/FTC Merger Investigation Process Map
Consult this comprehensive timeline of a merger investigation with links to important related content.
- Information Request to Assess Substantive Antitrust Risk in Mergers
Get a handy checklist of information antitrust deal counsel may request from a client to better assess antitrust risk.
- Antitrust Clauses in M&A Agreements Resource Kit​
Read through a collection of draft deal terms and language, such as “best efforts” and “hell-or-high-water” clauses, that are used to mitigate antitrust risk.
- Due Diligence: Antitrust Issues
Learn about due diligence best practices in deals that may be subject to an antitrust investigation.
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