Merck's $300 Million Acquisition Of Immune Design Has Cleared The Hart-Scott Antitrust Waiting Period -- Early.

Not remotely surprising, here (given the lack of real competitive overlap of any size -- my February 2019 backgrounder, here), but the parties had jointly asked for -- and have now been granted -- early relief on the normal Hart Scott anti-trust pre-merger notification (the so-called "second request" rules), and waiting period rules. In sum, as soon as a bit of likely ill-founded litigation (alleging that target Immune Design failed its SEC disclosure obligations, in the past) is cleared up, this deal will close.

Here is the relevant SEC filing -- and a bit:

. . . .Section 16 of the Offer to Purchase is hereby amended and restated by deleting the second paragraph of the subsection titled “Antitrust Compliance” and replacing it with the following:

On March 5, 2019, each of Parent and IMDZ filed its respective Premerger Notification and Report Form with the FTC and the Antitrust Division in connection with the Offer. Parent also made a request pursuant to the HSR Act for early termination of the waiting period applicable to the Offer. On March 15, 2019, the FTC granted early termination of the waiting period applicable to the Offer. Accordingly, the HSR Condition has been satisfied. . . .

Now you know -- onward, on a fine, fine morning, here. . . smiling. Picking my brackets, awaiting the public release of BHO 44's 2019 March Madness picks -- to set up a comparison / competition here, as ever, since 2009.

नमस्ते