Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

A consent order settles allegations that Entergy-Koch LP's (a limited partnership owned equally by Entergy Corporation and Koch) acquisition of 50 percent of the Gulf South Pipeline Company, LP from Koch would lessen competition for the sale of electricity to consumers in Louisiana and western Mississippi and the distribution of natural gas to consumers in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Entergy is the regulated electric and natural gas utility in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi. The order requires Entergy to establish a transparent process to buy natural gas and natural gas transportation that will assist state regulators in determining whether Entergy purchased gas supplies at inflated prices from its Entergy-Koch partnership.

A consent order allowed Genzyme’s acquisition of ILEX Oncology, Inc., but requires the companies to divest certain assets in the market for solid organ transplant acute therapy drugs. Specifically, Genzyme is required to divest all contractual rights related to ILEX’s Campath®, an immunosuppressant antibody used in solid organ transplants to Schering AG.

A consent order allowed GenCorp Inc. to acquire Atlantic Research Corporation while requiring the divestiture of Atlantic’s in-space liquid propulsion business within six months of consummating the transaction. According to the complaint issued with the consent order, the transaction as originally planned would have lessened competition in the United States in four different types of in-space propulsion engines: monopropellant thrusters; bipropellant apogee thrusters; dual mode apogee thrusters; and biopropellant attitude control thrusters.