Areeda, Antitrust Law , Little Brown, Sec 103 pg 8 . Most if not all states have comparable statutes prohibiting monopolistic conduct, price fixing agreements, and other acts in restraint of trade having strictly local impact. See, for example, the Massachusetts Antitrust Act . The usual classifications classification of mergers are horizontal , vertical, or conglomerate . A vertical merger is the acquisition of the stock or assets of a firm that buys the product sold by the acquirer or that sells a product bought by the acquirer.
Conglomerate mergers are all other acquisitions.
Such mixed conglomerates include the acquisition of a firm producing the same product as the acquirer in a different geographic mar ket, and the acquisition of a company producing a different product but one that involves similar manufacturing, distribu tion channels, or research and development efforts. Monopolies, Section 340 et seq.