A team of CRA consultants assisted counsel to CVS Caremark (CVS) before, during, and after the FTC‘s review of CVS’ acquisition of Universal American’s prescription drug benefit business. In support of CVS’ pre-acquisition process, CRA’s team calculated best-in-class rebate synergies on the basis of its review of each party’s contracts. During the FTC’s review of the proposed transaction, CRA consultants analyzed the Medicare Part D competitive bidding process and developed analyses showing that the merger would not create incentives for the combined entity to raise its bids. Following the FTC’s unconditional approval of the transaction, CRA’s experts carried out a second round of synergy calculations, sharing these with the integration teams at CVS Caremark and Universal American.
Merger simulation in second-score auctions: A nested logit model
In a recent Economics Letters article, CRA’s Martino De Stefano and Serge Moresi show how to improve the second-score auction model that is often used to...