RBB was instructed to provide economic advice during the acquisition by General Electric Medical Systems (GE) of Instrumentarium, a leading hospital equipment manufacturer. The European Commission, which considered the case, was initially concerned about the high post-merger market shares in a number of product markets. The Commission was also concerned that the transaction might remove a particularly close competitor from the market, and this might allow GE to raise price after the merger.

In this case, RBB undertook two substantial pieces of empirical work to assess the closeness of competition between the merging parties. First, we undertook a win/loss analysis that used empirical evidence to establish whether each merging party was often the ‘runner-up’ in those bids won by the other merging party. Our analysis showed that in most cases this was not the case. Second, we undertook an analysis of the determinants of the prices each merging party bid. Using sophisticated econometric analysis, we were able to isolate the impact of each merging party on the price bid by the other. Our analysis showed that the presence of GE did not have a statistically significant impact on the price that Instrumentarium bid and vice versa.

In the context of a UK court case brought by the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) against the selling arrangements of live television rights to the FA Premier League, senior RBB economists prepared a series of papers detailing the econometric analysis of the impact of live television coverage on the attendance at football matches. This analysis showed, taking into account relevant factors, that contrary to the assertion of the OFT, live television coverage did have a detrimental impact on attendance. This analysis not only confirmed earlier academic studies but went further in addressing some of the technical econometric issues raised by the OFT’s own economic expert.