Word: baxters
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Congressional critics, though, blame the Reagan Administration for creating a new atmosphere that encourages merger fever. The President appointed William Baxter, a Stanford law professor who firmly believes in the virtues of large-scale enterprises unfettered by excessive Government regulation, to be his antitrust chief in the Justice Department. Baxter's boss, Attorney General William French Smith, succinctly stated the new Adminstration's philosophy in an oft-quoted speech before the District of Columbia Bar. Said Smith: "Bigness in business is not necessarily badness. Efficient firms should not be hobbled under the guise of antitrust enforcement...
...Baxter openly accepts some responsibility for the merger phenomenon. Said he last week: "The statements we've made at the Justice Department have allowed people to think about mergers that they really wouldn't have thought about in past Administrations." Mobil's bid for Conoco is a case in point. Such a merger between two of the top ten petroleum companies would never have been seriously considered during Jimmy Carter's term. Baxter insists that his trustbusters will not allow any acquisition that significantly reduces competition within the oil industry or any other. He also maintains...
...Baxter should be wary, if only because the American public has long been apprehensive about excessive corporate power. He admits, "The strains of populist hostility toward large companies are deeply ingrained in the U.S." Government trustbusters have enjoyed broad public support as they attacked both concentration within an industry and combinations between corporate giants in unrelated businesses. Yet the burgeoning growth of corporate America has outpaced all the antitrust efforts. Since World War II, the portion of U.S. industry controlled by the 200 largest manufacturing firms has risen from...
...Justice Department, Antitrust Chief William Baxter seemed to backpedal a bit from the Administration's big-is-beautiful stance. Said he: "If the companies think we're generally soft on mergers, they're going to be in for a big surprise.'' Baxter stressed that while the Government was generally receptive to so-called vertical mergers of firms in different businesses, it would look skeptically upon horizontal combinations that might seriously reduce competition within an industry...
...Since Baxter assumed his post in March, his trustbusters have filed only four new suits, compared with the 25 started during the same period in the Carter Administration. Baxter last week dropped two of the antitrust cases inherited from Carter: one against Mack Trucks and the other involving two firms in the brick-selling business. In light of the new attitude, Government approval of the Du Pont-Conoco match-up appears almost certain...