In yesterday’s post we looked at the issue of regulatory independence, and how the mandate of regulators can be manipulated and warped to serve the so-called ‘greater good’. In that post we focused on the FCA with regards to its bending for Saudi Aramco and the impending record-breaking IPO, but today we shall look at something far more political. This is not to say that the FCA bending for Saudi Aramco, in light of the impending uncertainty that is Brexit, is not a political issue, which of course it is, but the case we are focusing on today is particularly political and, potentially, has incredibly wide-reaching consequences. The case in point for this post is the news that the potential merger between AT&T and Time Warner is being held up by the Justice Department, with the alleged sticking point being that Time Warner (and AT&T once they merge) must sell the company that owns CNN. Whilst this may seem inconsequential, the connection between CNN and US President Donald ...

The recent news that the massive Food Company Kraft Heinz is attempting a takeover of the British-Dutch consumer goods company Unilever has caused much debate, and for many different reasons. In this post, we will look at the particulars of the proposed deal and its potential effect. Yet, it will be important to contextualise the proposed deal against both the history of Kraft Heinz as a company, and the broader socio-economic-political environment in which this merger seeks to take place. This proposed $143 billion merger, which would create the third-largest merger ever if it were to be accepted today, has the potential to see one organisation be in the incredible position of ‘selling over 400 consumer/household goods to over a third of mankind ’, and would see it control 3% of the global market for packaged food and would, potentially, see disputes like that seen between Tesco and Unilever become a thing of the past, thus would be the significance of the power shift in the man...