On 19 February, the European Commission (“EC”) approved Siemens Healthineers’ acquisition of Varian Medical Systems following a Phase I investigation subject to conditions.
Varian is one of the leading suppliers of radiation therapy solutions used to plan and deliver radiation therapy treatment. Siemens Healthineers is one of the leading suppliers of diagnostic imaging equipment, which, amongst other, is used to support the planning and delivery of radiation therapy. Given the complementary nature of the parties’ products, the EC’s investigation focussed on potential adverse conglomerate effects on competition resulting from the proposed transaction.
RBB assisted Siemens Healthineers throughout the proceedings and pre-notification phase, including providing a standalone economic report that assessed the merged firm’s ability and incentives to engage in anti-competitive commercial or technical bundling or tying and such practices’ likely effect on competition. The EC accepted the arguments put forward in the RBB report regarding commercial tying and bundling, but raised concerns regarding the inter-operability between the parties’ and competitors’ products voiced by market participants during the EC’s market investigation. Following the parties’ commitment to continue adhering to the DICOM standard and providing the relevant information and technical assistance to ensure inter-operability, the transaction was cleared in phase I.
The EC press release can be found here.
RBB worked alongside law firms Latham & Watkins, Slaughter & May, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
