WATCH: California seeks investigation into big tech merger

Audio By Carbonatix

(The Center Square) – California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Wednesday he was joining 12 other Democratic state attorneys general in intervening in a $14 billion merger between rival technology companies Hewlett-Packard and Juniper Networking.

The new effort follows Bonta’s announcement last month that he opposed the U.S. Department of Justice’s settlement of the merger, which he alleged was the result of backroom deals that were not conducted with transparency and were not in the best interests of the public. He has asked the court reviewing the settlement to allow him and other state attorneys general to allow for a multi-state investigation into the merger.

“We’ll really dig into what were the reasons and the rationale behind this settlement,” Bonta said during a press conference Wednesday. “The U.S. DOJ brought an antitrust challenge to the proposed merger. We thought that was good, but then they settled in a way that didn’t address the concerns outlined in their complaint.”

Bonta also alleged in the news conference that officials from the Trump administration pushed the settlement through, despite the objections of the Department of Justice’s antitrust attorneys. Bonta said they noted the settlement did not address anti-competitive harms in the government’s complaint filed in the merger settlement proceedings.

Two antitrust attorneys appointed during Trump’s time in office were allegedly fired for their opposition to the merger, Bonta said.

“This is troubling to say the least,” Bonta said. “Antitrust enforcement exists to protect consumers, maintain competition and ensure fair markets, not to reward politically-connected companies.”

By intervening in the settlement proceedings, Bonta said he and the other state attorneys general would gain access to merger records, participate in court hearings and ask the court to pause the merger until after the proceedings are over. Without that scrutiny, competition could be harmed, businesses would have fewer choices and infrastructure costs would go up, Bonta said.

According to court documents that the attorneys general filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of Northern California, the merger settlement was influenced by well-connected lobbyists, and claims of anticompetitive behavior in the execution of the merger were glossed over by U.S. Department of Justice officials.

“I hope the court blocks the HPE/Juniper merger,” said Principal Deputy Assistant General Roger Alford in a quote included in the Oct. 14 court filing. “If you knew what I knew, you would hope so too.”

The call to participate in a multi-state investigation into the Hewlett-Packard/Juniper merger is part of a larger effort by Bonta to push back on what he has characterized as the Trump administration’s retribution and suppression of speech fueled by political motivations.

He previously called for an end to what he called “a politically-motivated indictment” of New York Attorney General Letitia James by the U.S. Department of Justice, and announced opposition to Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr’s targeting of broadcast networks that led to late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel’s short-lived removal from the airwaves.

“This is one piece of a broader pushback from the state of California,” Bonta said. “We think it’s important to push back and plant flags in the ground on all efforts by the Trump administration to act in ways that are inconsistent with the public interests that seek to punish political enemies and reward political friends.”

However, the Department of Justice defended its decision in the Hewlett-Packard and Juniper Networks merger.

“The Department has consistently reiterated that resolution of this merger was based only on the merits of the transaction,” said DOJ spokesman Gates McGavick in an emailed statement on Wednesday.

Representatives from Hewlett-Packard did not respond to requests for comment by press time on Wednesday.

Besides Bonta in California, the motion for intervention was filed by the attorneys general in Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, New York, Oregon, Washington state, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.