Boston College Law Review Volume 49 Article 2 Issue 4 Number 4 9-1-2008 The Antitrust Implications of "Going Private" and Other Changes of Corporate Control Thomas A. Piraino Jr Follow this and additional works at: http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/bclr Part of the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Commons Recommended Citation Thomas A. Piraino Jr, The Antitrust Implications of "Going Private" and Other Changes of Corporate Control, 49 B.C.L. Rev. 971 (2008), http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/bclr/vol49/iss4/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Boston College Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE ANTITRUST IMPLICATIONS OF "GOING PRIVATE" AND OTHER CHANGES OF CORPORATE CONTROL THOMAS A. PutAiNo, JR.* Abstract: Public shareholders likely have suffered billions of dollars in losses in recent years as a result of collusion among potential purchasers in change-of-control transactions. Unfortunately, the federal courts have been unable to devise an appropriate antitrust approach to collusion in change-of-control transactions. This article proposes a new approach to the antitrust regulation of the market for the control of public and pri- vate companies. Collusion among purchasers in that market has occurred in nearly every American industry The proposed approach will effectively deter the three types of anticompetitive conduct most likely to occur in these circumstances: (1) express agreements to allocate bids among po- tential purchasers, (2) implicit bid rigging by potential purchasers, and (3) consortiums among potential purchasers to submit single bids in company auctions.