T AT&T Inc

By Brent Kendall 

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department's antitrust chief is pledging to significantly cut the length of time it takes to review proposed mergers, amid complaints from companies that the regulatory clearance process has become painfully slow.

Mergers increasingly take longer to review and clear, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim said Tuesday in a speech at Georgetown University. "I agree that it is a problem."

Mr. Delrahim said the department would aim to resolve "most" of its merger investigations within six months after companies submit their paperwork, provided the would-be merger partners provide the relevant data and documents early in the regulatory process.

The department won't drag out its decision-making deliberations once it has the information it needs to determine whether a merger is a threat to competition, Mr. Delrahim said.

There will be exceptions to the timeline because some deals present knotty issues that can't be resolved in a six-month period, he said. And companies, he added, sometimes want to give the government extended time.

"If the goal of the business community is a shorter review, however, we share that goal," Mr. Delrahim said.

Mergers valued at more than $84 million that meet certain conditions, and all deals valued above $337 million, need government approval before they can be consummated.

The overwhelming majority of mergers raise no antitrust issues and are approved within 30 days of paperwork being submitted to the government. In a small percentage of deals, however, the government makes a so-called "second request" for information about the transaction, a move that triggers a full investigation that can take a year or longer to resolve.

The average duration of significant U.S. merger investigations has been about 10 months in recent years, according to data compiled by the law firm Dechert LLP.

Various factors have contributed to the length of the review process, including the ever-growing quantity of electronic data and documents that companies produce in the normal course of business and that government enforcers must sift through. Some mergers are also reviewed by foreign antitrust agencies, which can slow the process.

While companies want to reduce regulatory burdens, consumer advocates want antitrust officials to thoroughly vet potential concerns about mergers and to build strong legal cases against problematic deals that can succeed in court.

Mr. Delrahim said the Justice Department's efforts at greater efficiency would include a willingness to meet with business executives earlier in the merger review process. He also said the government would take steps to ensure that third parties with relevant information about a merger comply with civil subpoenas in a timely manner. Those third parties often include competitors and customers of the merging companies.

The antitrust chief also said the Justice Department was withdrawing a policy guide issued during the Obama administration on what remedies the government would accept to address concerns that a merger would harm competition. That 2011 guide expressed an openness to accepting commitments from companies to limit certain business conduct after they merged.

Mr. Delrahim, since taking office last year, has said repeatedly he doesn't favor such remedies, preferring that companies sell off parts of their businesses that raise antitrust problems. Those views factored into the Justice Department's lawsuit last year challenging AT&T Inc.'s acquisition of Time Warner, a case the department lost in June and is now appealing.

While AT&T had been open to accepting some temporary restrictions on its postmerger conduct, it firmly resisted any asset sales, contending that none should be required to secure the government's approval.

The Justice Department shares merger authority with the Federal Trade Commission, an independent agency with a bipartisan mix of commissioners -- and a Republican majority.

FTC Chairman Joseph Simons, speaking later at the Georgetown event, said he was unaware of the specifics of Mr. Delrahim's plans for DOJ, but agreed that "the goal is definitely to reduce the time it takes." He said the FTC planned to start compiling its own statistics on the length of the merger review process and the reasons for it.

Separately, Mr. Simons, who became chairman in May, again sent signals that he plans to run an active enforcement regime at the FTC. His lunchtime remarks cited empirical studies that suggested under-enforcement of the antitrust laws and diminished competition have produced higher levels of economic inequality.

The FTC is holding a series of hearings this fall on whether antitrust laws and enforcement priorities need adjusting in light of changing economic trends and business practices.

Write to Brent Kendall at brent.kendall@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 25, 2018 15:35 ET (19:35 GMT)

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