Cramer’s Top Anti-Competitive Merger List (Part 1)

Posted: February 21, 2007 at 6:14 pm

Tonight Cramer sais he is sick of hearing about the XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), but this sort of competition-eliminating and anti-competitive merger could spurn other mergers in other sectors.  Vulcan (VMC) up 11 points in anti-competitive deal to buy Florida (FRK).  Whole Foods (WFMI) is anti-competitive in organics buying Wild Oats (OATS).  If the democrats take the White House in 2 years Cramer said the people at the DOJ may have to start taking their jobs seriously.  There is now a gun to the head of a CEO that is considering a merger to hurry up and get this done before time runs out.  This could bring upside to many names so here is FIVE out of a TOP 10 LIST.  If it isn’t this list, they could at least be close according to Cramer:

10- Kroger (KR) & Safeway (SWY)
9- Quest Diagnostics (DGX) & Laboratory Corp (LH)
8- Carnival Cruise (CCL) & Royal Caribbean (RCL)
7- Office Depot (ODP) & Office Max (OMX)
6- Cardinal Health (CAH) & McKesson (MCK)

Keep in mind that many of these are VERY anti-competitive and would be blocked if the DOJ actually monitored mergers, so this is sort of a ‘merger wish list’ of Cramer’s that would be horrible for consumers and great for shareholders.

Jon C. Ogg
February 21, 2007

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