The European Commission (EC) is eyeing computer direct marketer Hewlett-Packard’s $25 billion proposal to buy Compaq Computer Corp. for possible anti-trust violations, though opinion is divided on whether the EC will have as much a problem with this merger as with another earlier this year, according to news reports.
“We’re talking about commodity products here, while in the GE-Honeywell case these were rather specialized products,” said a high-tech antitrust expert at a major law firm in Brussels, who asked not to be identified because his firm may become involved in the case.
Earlier this year European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti rejected General Electric Co’s proposed purchase of Honeywell International Inc. after American competition authorities had cleared it.
But another European anti-trust lawyer wasn’t so sure.
“Given the size of this merger and the size of the overlaps, it’s going to take a while to work out issues of overlapping markets,” the lawyer said.
In any case, the proposed merger between the two computer direct marketers would eventually result in 15,000 lost jobs.
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