The golf world was rocked this week by news that the PGA Tour, Europe’s DP World Tour, and Saudi Arabia’s controversial LIV Golf plan to merge. Or, as the PGA Tour put it, “unify the game of golf.” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan — who as recently as a year ago was using the 9/11 attacks, carried out mainly by Saudi citizens, to criticize PGA Tour players who had jumped to LIV — framed it a little differently: “take the competitor off the board.”
The entities involved haven’t finalized the terms of the deal and it will need approval from various stakeholders, like the PGA Tour’s board of directors, before it can go forward. But even if it does, there may be another hazard up ahead: antitrust regulators, who have generally taken a more adversarial stance on corporate consolidation in the last several years. They might not be thrilled with the game (and business) of golf being “unified.”
Tim Wu is a Columbia law professor who’s one of the leaders of an antitrust reform movement that would like to see US competition policy go back to its pre-1980s roots, when antitrust regulators and enforcers took a more oppositional stance to big mergers and corporate consolidation. He’s pretty doubtful that antitrust authorities will approve the deal.
Wu knows what he’s talking about, especially considering he’s a former competition adviser to President Biden who helped shape the administration’s policies regarding competition, including authoring the sweeping executive order designed to promote it.
Vox asked Wu to elaborate on some of those points and make the case to Americans who don’t watch golf for why this proposed merger should be important to them. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Sara Morrison
Does antitrust law cover sports?
Tim Wu
Yes. It’s a business.
Sara Morrison
Is this a merger? The PGA Tour is now calling it a “partnership.” What’s the difference?
Tim Wu
No one knows how the deal…
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