According to several reports over the last few days, the companies plan to file a merger notification with the European Commission on an undetermined day this month. This in itself is naturally no major revelation.
However, the companies (from ORCL's side) are projecting a close before August 31, despite the late EC filing and pending HSR second request review. Granted, ORCL is arguably the most efficient deal closer in recent memory, even when major regulatory issues surface. Nevertheless, a close in August seems somewhat overly enthusiastic even for .
While there continues to be absolutely no expectation of major delays due to the FTC and/or EC, it will come as no surprise if one or both regulators force the close to be pushed into September of this year.
June 29, 2009 - HSR Second Request Issued
The Department of Justice issued a second request under HSR for this transaction on Friday, June 26, 2009. ORCL has issued the following statements with respect to the second request:
"We've had a very good dialog with the Department of Justice and we were almost able to resolve everything before the Second Request deadline. All that's left is one narrow issue about the way rights to Java are licensed that is never going to get in the way of the deal. I fully expect that the investigation will end soon and not delay the closing of the deal this summer."
This somewhat unusual disclosure relating to the HSR process must be taken at face value given the extremely strong perception that this deal lacks major competition issues. As this merger agreement literally materialized as a result of perceived lesser regulatory issues than a JAVA-IBM merger, it will be a major surprise if the DOJ ultimately takes a negative view of this combination.
In short, this publication strongly agrees with ORCL's assessment of the HSR situation and anticipates DOJ clearance within the next two to three months, at most.
