Unscrambling PowerReviews

In January I noted that a federal district court in San Francisco ruled that Bazaarvoice had violated the Clayton Act when it acquired its chief competitor, PowerReviews.  At the time, I misinterpreted the ruling and thought it meant that court had held that Bazaarvoice was ordered to divest itself of PowerReviews.  I quickly received an email from a PR hack at Bazaarvoice asking me to correct the record, which I did.  The January ruling simply found that Bazaarvoice had violated the antitrust laws but did not go so far as to resolve the question of remedy, which could eventually include divestiture of PowerReviews.  

OK, so today Bazaarvoice has agreed to divest itself of PowerReviews and pay $222,000 to cover the US government's litigation costs - government lawyers are cheap.  Bazaarvoice has to bear its own costs, which I suspect are higher.  Here is the proposed stipulation and order and here is the proposed final judgment.

Remember that the PowerReviews acquisition did not trigger an automatic HSR filing, but the lack of a filing requirement does not mean one is exempt from antitrust enforcement.  Just ask Bazaarvoice.

-bjmq