Attorney General Raoul, FTC Announce Playpower Terminates Proposed Merger Of Commercial Playground Equipment
The company terminated its agreement with BCI Burke less than a week after a coalition of attorneys general and the FTC challenged the deal in court.
CHICAGO – Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a bipartisan coalition of 12 attorneys general, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today announced that Playpower has abandoned its proposed acquisition of BCI Burke (Burke) just a week after Raoul and the coalition filed a lawsuit challenging the transaction. Playpower and Burke are two of the largest commercial outdoor playground manufacturers.
Raoul and the coalition had alleged that the potential merger would drive up prices and decrease innovation and quality for equipment bought by schools, churches, parks and recreation departments, and other organizations across the country. Less than a week after the lawsuit was filed, the parties terminated their agreement and plan of merger. Raoul and the coalition have filed a notice of dismissal of this case with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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“I am proud of the collaborative work done by my office’s Antitrust Bureau to stop this illegal merger between two of the country’s largest playground manufacturers,” Raoul said. “Through this lawsuit, we identified critical areas of concern, such as significantly increased prices for schools and park districts in Illinois and across the country, despite an already over-priced market. This dismissal is a result of my office’s commitment to lowering prices for consumers while protecting competition, and I will continue to push back on similar illegal mergers.”
“PlayPower’s decision to abandon its proposed acquisition of Burke in the face of the FTC’s enforcement action is a win for American consumers and will help drive down the prices that schools, churches, daycares and parks departments pay for playgrounds,” said Daniel Guarnera, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “State and municipal governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars on playground equipment every year, so taxpayers are among the biggest beneficiaries from continued head-to-head competition between PlayPower and Burke.”
Raoul and the coalition alleged in their complaint that the deal will significantly increase concentration in an already concentrated market and eliminate PlayPower and Burke’s intense rivalry, which benefits playground customers through lower prices, better services, higher quality and increased innovation. Today, only five companies — including PlayPower and Burke — own more than a dozen playground equipment brands and hold 85% to 90% of the market share in the United States.
Joining Raoul and the FTC in filing this lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
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