February 1, 1993

SUMMARY OF ANTITRUST ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
FOR PUBLIC RELEASE
FOR MONDAY, JAN. 25, 1993 THROUGH FRIDAY, JAN. 29, 1993

1/27/93	Justice Department Will Not Challenge Hearst's Acquisition of San Antonio Express-News The Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, announced that it will not challenge under the antitrust laws Hearst's proposed acquisition of the San Antonio Express-News from News America. Hearst owns the San Antonio Light, the only other daily newspaper in San Antonio, Texas. On October 6, 1992, Hearst publicly announced its proposed acquisition of the San Antonio Express-News and that it would close the San Antonio Light if it could not find a buyer for the newspaper. The Department's decision not to challenge Hearst's acquisition comes after an exhaustive investigation in which it concluded that the San Antonio Light met the stringent requirements of the failing firm defense under established antitrust case law and the Department's 1992 Horizontal Merger Guidelines.
1/27/93	Justice Department Will Not Challenge Gannett's Acquisition of The Honolulu Advertiser The Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, announced that it informed Gannett Co. Inc. and Persis Corp. that the Department does not intend to challenge under the antitrust laws Persis' merger with Gannett. Gannett is the parent company of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and Persis is the parent company of The Honolulu Advertiser. The Star-Bulletin and The Advertiser are the two major daily newspapers published in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Department's decision not to challenge Gannett's acquisition of The Advertiser follows an agreement by Gannett to sell the Star-Bulletin to Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership simultaneously with Gannett's acquisition of The Advertiser.
1/29/93	Department of Justice Issues Business Review Letter In a letter from John W. Clark, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division, to counsel for PRIMESOURCE, the Department advised PRIMESOURCE that it does not intend to challenge under the antitrust laws a proposal by fifteen local and regional wholesale distributors of lawn and garden products to form the PRIMESOURCE joint venture. PRIMESOURCE is being formed to enable its members to compete against the single existing national distributor for multi-regional and national mass-merchandise accounts that prefer to do business with distributors that have wider distribution facilities and centralized bidding and administrative functions than its proposed members presently possess. "This proposed joint venture could have a significant procompetitive effect by creating an additional national distributor of lawn and garden products to serve those large retailers who require such service," said Clark. At the same time, Clark stated the proposed venture should not have anticompetitive effects because of the presence of a number of other providers of lawn and garden products, the ability of manufacturers to sell directly to retailers, and PRIMESOURCE's size relative to the industry's. In addition, the venture is structured so as to safeguard against unnecessary coordination by competing distributors.

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Copies of legal filings are available from the Legal Procedure Unit, Antitrust Division, Room 3233, Telephone No.: 514-2481.