Report: China increasingly uses merger reviews to make demands of US companies

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China's antitrust regulator "is holding back its required green light for mergers that involve American companies as a technology war with Washington intensifies," according to a Wall Street Journal report today. China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has asked companies seeking merger approvals to "make available in China products they sell in other countries—an attempt to counter the US's increased export controls targeting China," the report said.

"Chinese regulators recently have slowed down their merger reviews of a number of proposed acquisitions by US companies, including Intel Corp.'s $5.2 billion takeover of Israel-based Tower Semiconductor Ltd. and chip maker MaxLinear Inc.'s $3.8 billion purchase of Silicon Motion Technology of Taiwan, according to people close to the process," the WSJ wrote.

Microsoft's $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard is "subject to Beijing's lengthy merger scrutiny" because China last year "declined the companies' request to file the deal under a simplified and expedited procedure," the WSJ report said. The Microsoft/Activision deal also faces antitrust scrutiny in the UK and EU.