US FTC Revises Position on Treatment of Debt, But Is Something Else Behind the Curtain?

On August 26, 2021, the Bureau of Competition of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a blog post that simultaneously overturned previously released guidance concerning treatment of debt for Hart-Scott-Rodino filing purposes and raised questions about whether the public can, or should, rely on thousands of informal interpretations relating to the HSR Act provided by agency staff. This Legal Update provides further detail on the post’s implications for parties in equity deals.