Lauren Thomas
Appearances
WSJ What’s News
U.S. Stocks Bounce Back on Hopes of Trade War De-Escalation
When the Biden administration turned over, you had one individual in particular, Lina Khan, was kind of notoriously against, you know, monopolies and really the idea of M&A in general. And so with her moving on, there was...
WSJ What’s News
U.S. Stocks Bounce Back on Hopes of Trade War De-Escalation
This celebration across Wall Street, and in particular down in D.C., an expectation that concerns around antitrust were going to lighten up and that there would be a wave of M&A under Trump. And of course, this hasn't materialized. What's giving people hope, though, is now we have these new faces, both in the FTC and the DOJ.
WSJ What’s News
U.S. Stocks Bounce Back on Hopes of Trade War De-Escalation
In the FTC, you have Andrew Ferguson, the chair of that organization, and then And the DOJ, the head of the antitrust division, Gail Slater, says lawyers and bankers and companies are getting to know these individuals better. There's more clarity around just what they're thinking and how they're going to look at deals. It's kind of like time heals all wounds.
WSJ What’s News
U.S. Stocks Bounce Back on Hopes of Trade War De-Escalation
So we haven't had many deals yet to really be a test case. There's still some question marks. Generally, yes, you'd see a lull at the start of a new administration. But once you get a couple months into it, everyone's more comfortable with, like, Ferguson and Slater, for example.
WSJ What’s News
U.S. Stocks Bounce Back on Hopes of Trade War De-Escalation
What's so interesting, of course, about that deal is just in and of itself, it's a tech deal. And big tech, Ferguson himself and Slater, too, like everyone's always looking at big tech and they are more under the spotlight than other industries. And so that will certainly test just the appetite in general for big tech. tech deal. Alphabet is already facing its own challenges elsewhere.
WSJ What’s News
U.S. Stocks Bounce Back on Hopes of Trade War De-Escalation
And then it goes and does a deal. What's interesting about that deal, of course, the company tried to frame it as this is not us like buying another business where we're going to just take more market share. And so it tried to frame the deal as something that's good for national security just in general here in the U.S. So it'll be interesting to see that one.
WSJ What’s News
U.S. Stocks Bounce Back on Hopes of Trade War De-Escalation
But yeah, we just we haven't had as many big deals to really put some of these new folks like Ferguson and Slater to the test.