How the Feds Used Quad's and LSC's Own Words Against Them
The U.S. Justice Department's lawsuit seeking to block Quad's purchase of printing rival LSC Communications relies heavily on comments from the two companies themselves.
"As LSC CEO Tom Quinlan remarked to investors mere months before the current deal was announced, combining LSC and Quad would eliminate ‘battle[s]’ between the two and could help lead to ‘[p]ricing stability,’” Justice’s lawsuit says.
The lawsuit argues that the combined company would indeed have the power to stifle price competition in four markets – the production (and in some cases distribution) of magazines, catalogs, single-color trade books, and textbooks. The deal would “significantly increase concentration in already concentrated markets,” the lawsuit says.
D. Eadward Tree is a pseudonymous magazine-industry insider who provides insights on publishing, postal issues and print media on his blog, Dead Tree Edition.
