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3 Antitrust L. & Econ. Rev. 25 (1969-1970)
Antitrust and the Merger-Wave Phenomenon: A Failure of Public Policy

handle is hein.journals/antlervi3 and id is 27 raw text is: ANTITRUST AND THE 'MERGER-WAVE' PHENOMENON: A FAILURE OF PUBLIC POLICY DR. SAMUEL R. REID* Introduction The Merger Problem While corporate mergers are covered by a number of federal statutes, particularly the Sherman Act (1890), the Clayton and Federal Trade Commission Acts (1914), and the Celler-Kefauver amendment of the Clayton Act (1950), and while there have in fact been a number of merger cases brought by the antitrust agencies in recent years (including a few of the so-called conglomerate type), it would be a mistake to assume that the merger problem either has been or is being adequately dealt with. On the contrary, the current merger wave, the most massive in our history, rolls on unabated, quite oblivious to these various statutory pronouncements; the number and magnitude of the mergers recorded in 1968 ex- ceeded those of any past year, and the merger activity during the first half of 1969 was some 65% greater than that of the preceding year's own unprecedented record. An examination of the data pre- sented in Figure 1 and Table 1, below, should dispel any notion that our various antitrust laws have been effective in curbing corporate mergers. Three Merger Movements Indeed, it appears to be a curious fact of our economic life that each of the country's major merger waves has followed the passage * Dr. Reid is associate professor of finance, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle. His published work includes The Conglomerate Merger: A Special Case, 2 Antitrust Law & Economics Review 141 (Fall 1968), and a recently published book, Mergers, Managers, and the Economy (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968).

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