Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

The FTC required CoStar Group, the largest provider of commercial real estate information services in the United States, to sell LoopNet's ownership interest in Xceligent, under an order settling charges that CoStar's $860 million acquisition of LoopNet would be anticompetitive. The FTC's complaint alleges the proposed acquisition would reduce competition in the markets for real estate listings databases and information services. The modified final order resolving the charges preserves competition that otherwise would have been lost through the acquisition by requiring the combined firm to sell LoopNet's interest in Xceligent, a significant provider of U.S. commercial real estate information.

Koninklijke Ahold N.V., the parent company of Giant Food Stores, LLC, agreed to sell a supermarket outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to settle charges that its proposed acquisition of the Genuardi's supermarket chain from Safeway Inc. otherwise would be anticompetitive. The transaction, if completed, would eliminate competition between Giant and Genuardi's.  To preserve competition in the local grocery market, the consent order requires Ahold to sell a supermarket in Newtown, Pennsylvania to McCaffrey's supermarkets.