ACCC in particular, seeking views on: 1) the extent of competition between IPH and Xenith 2) the likely impact of the proposed acquisition on prices and quality of Australian IPrelated services 3) the extent of future competitive constraints (such as other competitors or newentrant competitors) for the supply of Australian IP related services.
Please consider the likely timeframe formarket entry and provide details about barriers to entry, such as:a. establishing brand and reputation, as well as growing a client baseb. restrictions or barriers to individual IP professionals or attorneys switchingfirms or establishing growing firmsc. whether there is any significance to scale in this industry (i.e. whetherlarge firms have any advantages over smaller firms)d. any regulatory barrierse. exclusive/long-term client contractsf. examples of recent market entry and exit.
Basically whatever reasoning that has been submitted in favour on the QIP+XIP merger would be almost equally applicable for the IPH+XIP. Some numbers may differ slightly, but not dramatically. Smart move by IPH waiting for others to make the case for takeover easier in a competition context.
XIP Price at posting:
$1.83 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
