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Technology Stocks : AUTOHOME, Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JayPC who wrote (8446)	4/23/1999 12:22:00 AM
From: RTev	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

It seems to me that the FTC has for the time being agreed not to hinder the growth and development of the net. That was the FCC. The FTC hasn't had to address the issue because there hasn't been a merger in this market. The Federal Trade Commission reviews mergers for their effects on competition. They would take a different view of the affected market. ftc.gov The significant statute in this case would be the Clayton Act: "The Commission is charged under Sections 3, 7 and 8 of this Act with preventing and eliminating unlawful tying contracts, corporate mergers and acquisitions, and interlocking directorates..." Elsewhere: "The Clayton Act prohibits corporate acquisitions that may tend substantially to lessen competition ..." As several have pointed out, the competition between RR and ATHM comes not at the consumer level but at a higher level. A small cable operator could now choose between the two (and there is significant competition to pick them up). Combine RR and ATHM and that choice is gone. Network providers like Worldcom, Qwest, or Level3 now have a chance to make backbone agreements with RoadRunner that are less likely if AT&T controls both. Equipment providers like Lucent and Cisco and many others could offer different solutions that might never make it to market if the choice of just one company decides the issue.