Walker deemed the affidavits of these witnesses, which were intended to demonstrate that a merger between Oracle and PeopleSoft would destroy healthy competition, to be biased and unrepresentative. “Even when testimony is given by live witnesses in the courtroom,” he said, “the choice of customers is almost always a product of selection bias. Seldom does it appear that the customer’s views are that of the general customer population.”

Walker went on to caution against overeager trust-busting. “Errors in anti-merger law come at a very high price,” he said, arguing that defeating mergers can hurt the economy by preventing companies from maximizing efficiency, and that antitrust litigation is costly for all parties.

Previous Page

Next Page