Killer Acquisitions and EU Merger Control
(2022) JAEM03 20221Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract (Swedish)
- ‘Killer acquisitions’ are fairly a new phenomenon which stems from a researcher’s study related to concerns from a series of mergers in the pharmaceutical industry (Big Pharma) around 2018. Killer acquisitions occur in the pharmaceutical sector and also in large digital and technological markets occupied by large companies (Big Tech). They are putting themselves into a position of overwhelming market power also through multiple acquisitions of nascent or fledgling companies that offer niche digital products and/or services. As these larger technological and pharmaceutical companies take advantage of their scale and scope, they are offering consumers more and more value while setting up barriers for consumers to switch away from these... (More)
- ‘Killer acquisitions’ are fairly a new phenomenon which stems from a researcher’s study related to concerns from a series of mergers in the pharmaceutical industry (Big Pharma) around 2018. Killer acquisitions occur in the pharmaceutical sector and also in large digital and technological markets occupied by large companies (Big Tech). They are putting themselves into a position of overwhelming market power also through multiple acquisitions of nascent or fledgling companies that offer niche digital products and/or services. As these larger technological and pharmaceutical companies take advantage of their scale and scope, they are offering consumers more and more value while setting up barriers for consumers to switch away from these service providers.
In this way, Big Pharma, Big Tech and their affected markets become uncontestable as they lean more in favour of the serial acquiring of companies for example in technological fields and hence creating a ‘winner takes all’ situation in their markets at the expense of nascent firms and innovative startups. Thus, the market share of Big Pharma and Big Tech is growing by means of ‘killing’ the innovation and limiting the nascent firms from ever even getting close to entering the markets. This type of behaviour has attracted the attention of researchers, regulators and competition agencies around the world, and it has led to concerns about whether there has been an overly permissive approach to enforcing merger control rules. The European Commission has proposed new guidance on the application of the Merger Regulation that affects scrutiny of merger transactions and has been created to tackle the issues of killer acquisitions.
This thesis examines the realities of killer acquisitions from the perspective of Big Pharma and Big Tech and how they have succeeded in creating an efficient way to destabilize markets. One way to investigate this phenomenon is to see how killer acquisitions have developed, how the regulators have been
able to address them in Europe and whether merger control can or will influence killer acquisitions. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9093746
- author
- Honkamaa, Oona LU
- supervisor
-
- Anna Tzanaki LU
- organization
- course
- JAEM03 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Killer Acquisitions, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Reverse Killer Acquisitions, Pharmaceutical Industry, Merger Control, EUMR, Antitrust, Innovation
- language
- English
- id
- 9093746
- date added to LUP
- 2022-06-28 13:52:11
- date last changed
- 2022-06-28 13:52:11
@misc{9093746,
abstract = {{‘Killer acquisitions’ are fairly a new phenomenon which stems from a researcher’s study related to concerns from a series of mergers in the pharmaceutical industry (Big Pharma) around 2018. Killer acquisitions occur in the pharmaceutical sector and also in large digital and technological markets occupied by large companies (Big Tech). They are putting themselves into a position of overwhelming market power also through multiple acquisitions of nascent or fledgling companies that offer niche digital products and/or services. As these larger technological and pharmaceutical companies take advantage of their scale and scope, they are offering consumers more and more value while setting up barriers for consumers to switch away from these service providers.
In this way, Big Pharma, Big Tech and their affected markets become uncontestable as they lean more in favour of the serial acquiring of companies for example in technological fields and hence creating a ‘winner takes all’ situation in their markets at the expense of nascent firms and innovative startups. Thus, the market share of Big Pharma and Big Tech is growing by means of ‘killing’ the innovation and limiting the nascent firms from ever even getting close to entering the markets. This type of behaviour has attracted the attention of researchers, regulators and competition agencies around the world, and it has led to concerns about whether there has been an overly permissive approach to enforcing merger control rules. The European Commission has proposed new guidance on the application of the Merger Regulation that affects scrutiny of merger transactions and has been created to tackle the issues of killer acquisitions.
This thesis examines the realities of killer acquisitions from the perspective of Big Pharma and Big Tech and how they have succeeded in creating an efficient way to destabilize markets. One way to investigate this phenomenon is to see how killer acquisitions have developed, how the regulators have been
able to address them in Europe and whether merger control can or will influence killer acquisitions.}},
author = {{Honkamaa, Oona}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Killer Acquisitions and EU Merger Control}},
year = {{2022}},
}