US antitrust push

Private equity executives are among the directors who have stepped down, marking the first fallout in the industry since Jonathan Kanter, head of the DoJ’s antitrust unit, pledged to crack down on competition violations in the sector. The seven executives left five boards in response to concerns raised by the DoJ about breaches of section 8 in the 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act, which prohibits «interlocking directorates», where directors sit on boards of multiple competing companies. «Section 8 is important, but under-enforced, part of our antitrust laws,» Kanter said. Among the executives who stepped down was one from private equity firm Thoma Bravo who sat on the boards of two software groups, SolarWinds and Dynatrace.

Since President Joe Biden appointed a new generation of watchdogs with a mandate to bolster existing competition rules, private equity has moved into the spotlight of antitrust enforcers and regulators. Kanter told the FT this year that his agency would take a stricter stance on buyout firms buying companies across sectors to become dominant players. In his interview with the FT, the lawyer said that the DoJ would enforce section 8 of the antitrust act. In addition, Lina Khan, head of the Federal Trade Commission, said she would take a more muscular approach to private equity, as their businesses had «life and death consequences» for US citizens.

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