So, sanity prevails and U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman of the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. ruled in favor of the proposed Whole Foods Markets acquisition of Wild Oats Markets and against the Federal Trade Commission’s complaint to enjoin the merger (previous posts here).
But in the NY Times article on the court ruling, William J. Baer, a Washington antitrust lawyer and a former director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, observed the following:
ìThis obviously has got to be a setback for the F.T.C. I think they thought this was a slam-dunk.î
If Baer is correct in his assessment of how the FTC viewed the case, then that is even better proof that the agency is utterly devoid of adult supervision than this.