Regulatory constrained portfolio restructuring: the US department store industry in the 1990s

The US department store industry has undergone a recent round of strategic acquisition-based portfolio restructuring. This paper analyses one such acquisition, studying how its geography is restructured in the premerger stage to conform to the Federal Trade Commission's 'fix-it-first' policy and to improve the strategic fit of the transaction. The article then investigates evidence, and analyses the effects, of a new era of stricter FTC enforcement, where divestiture may no longer be sufficient in cases of horizontal market overlap. Fundamentally, the paper considers the nature of 'real' regulation in action, as rules partially dictate investment decisions