Datatel – SunGard Higher Education Merger

On December 7, 2011, Datatel and SunGard Higher Education announced that the proposed combination of the two companies cleared Department of Justice review. Datatel and SunGard Higher Education both produce enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for educational institutions worldwide. Professor Dennis Carlton, Bradley Reiff, and Lynette Neumann of Compass Lexecon conducted analyses of the competitive conditions in the ERP for higher education industry, showing that the proposed combination was unlikely to reduce competition. They presented their results at the Department of Justice and in a report submitted to the DOJ. Following submission of the report, the Department decided to terminate its investigation without conditions. Compass Lexecon worked with legal teams headed by Peter Thomas at Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP (representing Datatel) and John Harkrider at Axinn Veltop Harkrider LLP (representing SunGard Data Systems).