The US DoJ requires divestiture of a processing plant in exchange for settling the investigation of a merger in the chicken processing industry (George’s Foods / Tyson Foods)

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed two civil antitrust lawsuits, challenging, on May 10, the consummated merger between George’s Inc. and Tyson Foods and, on May 12, the proposed acquisition by Verifone Systems, Inc. of Hypercom Corp. Neither transaction was subject to the pre-merger notifications under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Improvements Act of 1976. In U.S. v. George’s Foods, LLC, the DOJ challenges the consummated transaction between George’s Inc. and Tyson Foods, two chicken processing companies in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The lawsuit requests that the court declare the acquisition unlawful under Section 7 of the Clayton Act