Ancestors

Written by Bruce Elrick on 2024-12-05 at 20:54

Hey Cory ,

I read in today's @pluralistic that the Canadian Competition Bureau has never stopped a merger.

I'm trying to reconcile this with my vague recollections of working for a company providing contract IT service at Petro Canada in the late 1990s. Petro was doing due diligence on a merger w/ Ultramar Diamond Shamrock that was ultimately scuttled because they would have been required to divest in too many gas stations where there was not enough competition in various locations down east

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Toot

Written by Bruce Elrick on 2024-12-05 at 20:58

@pluralistic

Meaningless today now that Suncor and Petro merged, but absolute statements set my Spidey Sense tingling.

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Descendants

Written by Amelia Bellamy-Royds :progress: on 2024-12-05 at 22:18

@virtuous_sloth @pluralistic This sounds like maybe a distinction between "the competition bureau forbid the merger" and "the competition bureau put conditions on the merger that were enough to make it unfavourable for the companies involved" ?

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Written by Bruce Elrick on 2024-12-05 at 22:18

@AmeliasBrain @pluralistic

Absolutely. But I would then not call that not preventing a merger.

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Written by Cory Doctorow on 2024-12-05 at 22:23

@virtuous_sloth @AmeliasBrain Conditioning mergers and blocking mergers are definitely not the same thing. When the FTC or CMA says, "these firms can't merge," well, they can't merge. It's not merely unprofitable do so, it's illegal.

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Written by Bruce Elrick on 2024-12-05 at 22:28

@pluralistic @AmeliasBrain

Ok, sure, but the job of a competition bureau is the ensure there is competition, not to just "block mergers".

If the condition set results in a preservation of competition and the merging companies decide that is uneconomical, then it is a success, no? If the they decide it is economical, then what is the rational for blocking the merger, given that the condition purportedly preserves competition?

My point is, the statement "never stopped merger" is not true.

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Written by Bruce Elrick on 2024-12-05 at 22:35

@pluralistic @AmeliasBrain

Cory, you put your thoughts on Pluralistic because you welcome the discipline that thinking in public gives you.

I'm just objecting to an absolute statement that misleads your readers. You said "stopped" and that implies something that is likely not true, especially if the main tools the Bureau uses is setting conditions that preserve competition.

None of my critique changes your larger point about massive consolidation in Canadian industry.

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