Antitrust/Competition

Donna Patterson has represented numerous clients in Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division investigations of proposed mergers and acquisitions, in state and federal court antitrust and complex commercial litigation, and as an antitrust counselor.

Previous Government Experience

• Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (1997-2000) with responsibility for supervising the investigations and litigation of dozens of proposed transactions including US v. Lockheed, US v. Primestar, and US v. Aetna; and for supervising the division's Health Care Task Force.

Antitrust/Competition Representative Matters

Representative Antitrust Transactions

• Kraft Foods Inc. in the US$3.7 billion sale of its pizza business (DiGiorno, Tombstone, California Pizza Kitchen and Jack's) to Nestle; its hostile bid for Cadbury plc; the US$1.5 billion sale of its nonchocolate confectionary business, including the Altoids business, to Wrigley.
• Kraft Foods in the US$580 million sale of its Milk-Bone dog snack business to Del Monte, the US$280 million sale of its Minute Rice business to Ebro Paleva, and the US$960 million sale of its Post Cereal business to Ralcorp.
• NASDAQ, in its US$1.8 billion acquisition of Instinet, an electronic trading platform.
• NBC's US$5.2 billion acquisition of Vivendi Universal Entertainment, creating one of the world's largest media and entertainment companies, and its acquisitions of the Oxygen! Network and The Weather Channel; its joint venture with Hearst and Disney; its joint venture with NewsCorp and Disney; and its sale of the Sundance Network.
• Nucor in its US$185 million acquisition of Ambassador Steel, its US$1.25 billion acquisition of Harris Steel, its US$1.4 billion acquisition of David J. Joseph Company, and its US$320 million acquisition of Ambassador Steel.
• General Electric, in connection with the DOJ review of its US$43 billion acquisition of Honeywell.

Representative Antitrust Litigation

• Nucor Corporation in Standard Iron Works v. Arcelor Mittal et al, a class action filed on behalf of all purchasers of steel products against 8 major US steel producers.
• Litigated one of the rare full trials on the merits of a merger case, State of New York v. Kraft General Foods, Inc.
• Retained by major media association for antitrust guidance.