Protecting Confidential Information From A Potential Merger Partner

In a Today’s General Counsel column, Jeffery Cross looks at a situation that commonly needs to be addressed when a horizontal merger is being contemplated  but has not closed. During that period, it’s necessary that information be exchanged in order to for the negotiation to proceed, even though the parties remain competitors and it must be assumed they could remain competitors. Moreover, they most be careful to avoid passing information in a way that could bring an antitrust charge. It’s a challenging situation, but there are ways to address it.