Antitrust officials try to block playground equipment merger

The Federal Trade Commission and a dozen state attorneys general have sued to stop Platinum Equity and portfolio company PlayPower from buying rival playground equipment maker BCI Burke from Bertram Capital.Why it matters: It's been rare in Trump 2.0 for federal and state antitrust regulators to work in concert.Zoom in: At a top level, this feels like basic antitrust enforcement. The FTC and states argue that the merger would increase prices — particularly for schools, municipalities, churches that buy outdoor playground equipment — and decrease product innovation.But the case also may test Biden-era merger guidelines that take particular aim at serial acquirers.Specifically, they say that if a deal is part of a pattern or strategy of multiple acquisitions, the regulators can "consider the cumulative effect."PlayPower has made several large acquisitions over the past few decades, including Playworld in 2016, although all of that predates Platinum's ownership. So it both is and isn't about private equity rollups.Also: Another part of the Biden-era guidelines was that regulators could consider a merger's concentration impact on an already-consolidated market.In this situation, the F…

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