Word: ge
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Competition Commissioner Monti saw it as a straight question of competition. "The merger between GE and Honeywell, as it was notified, would have severely reduced competition in the aerospace industry and resulted ultimately in higher prices for customers, particularly airlines," he said...
...Europe is a bit more prevention-minded. The efficiencies of the GE-Honeywell deal would have brought prices down in the near-term; even Monti acknowledged that. But down the road, the EU worried that those lower prices would eventually starve the competition - especially the European competition - out of business. End result: one dominant company, monopolist's prices...
Though UTC won't comment on the commission's investigations, sources close to the case say it opposed the deal. That makes sense. UTC's Pratt & Whitney division is a competitor of GE's in the global market for large aircraft engines. (With Rolls-Royce of Britain, the companies make up what is, in effect, a three-member oligopoly.) GE's competitors may have thought that by combining GE's engines with Honeywell's advanced electronics, Jack Welch's company would have been able to offer customers an irresistible package--especially since GE, through its aircraft-leasing division, is itself...
There's more to this than the usual tale of corporate rivalry. GE, after all, is no ordinary American company, and Welch--the great hero of modern American capitalism--is no ordinary boss. Since he declared the commission's conditions unacceptable, three Senators--Republican Phil Gramm and Democrats John D. Rockefeller and Ernest Hollings--have expressed concern to the Europeans. Hollings, new chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said the developments supported those who think the E.C. seeks to "protect and promote European industry at the expense of its U.S. competitors," and warned that "denial of a merger...would undermine...
...area of splendid cooperation across the Atlantic. Moreover, Monti is about the least likely man in Brussels to be motivated by crude anti-Americanism. Indeed, he was offered the job of Foreign Minister in the Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi, conservative America's favorite European. In any event, GE competitors opposed to the deal are--like UTC--just as likely to be American as European. Airbus, Europe's flagship aviation company, says it supported the GE-Honeywell deal. I understand that only one airline formally opposed the merger, and I suspect it is based...