Olivier N. Antoine is a partner in Crowell & Moring's Antitrust & Competition Group in the firm's New York office.
Olivier's practice focuses on transactional matters, antitrust regulatory approval, government investigations, and general antitrust counseling, both in the United States and abroad.
Olivier has extensive experience representing corporate clients in difficult merger and antitrust investigations before the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, the European Commission, SAMR, and many other foreign antitrust agencies. In addition, his practice includes civil and criminal antitrust enforcement matters, private antitrust litigation, and compliance and audit counseling.
Olivier has been ranked by clients and peers in Chambers USA since 2013 as a leading lawyer in Antitrust (New York). Olivier has also been recognized by Global Competition Review's Who's Who Legal of Competition Lawyers in New York since 2010 and by Super Lawyers as a top-rated antitrust litigation attorney since 2020.
Olivier has significant experience handling strategic antitrust matters before antitrust agencies overseas. He has defended companies in antitrust and merger investigations in more than thirty jurisdictions outside of the United States, including the European Union, Canada, Germany, France, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Spain, South Africa, Korea, Pakistan, Taiwan, and the People's Republic of China. The breadth of his international experience includes several protracted Phase II investigations before the European Commission, the South African Competition Commission, SAMR, and Brazilian antitrust authority CADE.
Olivier's work has covered a broad range of industries, including satellite radio, recorded music and music publishing, telecommunications, fixed satellites, television broadcasting, oil and gas, paper and forestry products, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, healthcare, food products and food service, bread, spirits, beer, vitamins, textiles, chemicals, fertilizers, sports goods, airlines, automotive and automotive parts, semiconductors, media buying and advertising, brick and mortar and e-distribution, banking, financial services, and private equity.
Representative M&A and Joint Venture Experience
- AT&T Inc. in many transactions including the $43 billion spin off Warner Media to Discovery, the $7.8 billion sale of an interest in DirecTV to TPG, the $1.175 billion sale of the Crunchyroll business to Sony, the $108.7 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc., its $67 billion acquisition of DirecTV, its $1.19 billion acquisition of Leap Wireless, its $944 million acquisition of Centennial Communications, and its attempted $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA Inc.
- Siemens AG in many transactions including the $1.3 billion sale of its Healthcare IT business to Cerner, the sale of its microbiology business to Danaher, and its global collaboration with Varian Medical Systems, and Siemens Healthineers in its $1.1 billion acquisition of Corindus Vascular Robotics.
- A third party foodservice divestiture acquirer in connection with U.S. Foods’s $1.8 billion acquisition of Service Group of America, Inc. and several other matters including Sysco’s proposed acquisition of U.S. Foods.
- United Technologies in connection with its $30 billion acquisition of Rockwell Collins, and its $15.5 billion acquisition of Goodrich.
- TransCanada in its $13 billion acquisition of Columbia Pipeline Group.
- Alcoa in its $2.85 billion acquisition of Firth Rixson.
- Goldman Sachs & Co. in its spinoff of the REDI business.
- Flowers Foods in its $355 million acquisition of the Hostess bread assets.
- DuPont in the $4.9 billion sale of DuPont Paint and Coating business to the Carlyle Group.
- Veolia in the $1.9 billion sale of its waste assets to Highstar Capital.
- Reed Elsevier PLC in its $4.1 billion acquisition of ChoicePoint.
- Sirius Satellite Radio in its $13 billion merger with XM Satellite Radio.
- Travelport in its $1.4 billion acquisition of Worldspan.
- Smithfield Foods in its $810 million acquisition of Premium Standard Foods, and its $367 million acquisition of Farmland Foods.
- PanAmSat in its $3.2 billion sale to Intelsat.
- Adidas AG in its $3.8 billion acquisition of Reebok.
- VNU in the attempted $7 billion acquisition of IMS Health.
- Celanese before the European Commission in its $492 million acquisition of Acetex. (Phase II investigation)
- Grey Global in its $1.7 billion sale to WPP.
- CSL in its $925 million acquisition of the Aventis Behring plasma business.
- Vivendi Universal in its $8.1 billion sale of the Seagram Spirits and Wine business to Diageo and Pernod Ricard.
- Total before the European Commission in its €50 billion acquisition of Elf. (Phase II investigation).
Representative Litigation Experience
- State of New York et al. v. Deutsche Telekom et al, No 1:19-cv-05434 (S.D.N.Y) – Represent AT&T Inc. as a non-party in connection with the New York Attorney General et al. challenge of T-Mobile USA’s proposed $56 billion acquisition of Sprint.
- E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. v. Kolon Industries, Inc., No. 3.09cv58 (E.D.VA) – Represented E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company in trade secret infringement litigation against Kolon Industries, Inc., and related monopolization counterclaim (ED Va). DuPont won a $919.9 million verdict, and the antitrust counterclaim was dismissed with prejudice.
- In re Air Cargo Antitrust Litigation, MDL-1715 (E.D.N.Y.) – Represented a European airline in defending class action claims that air cargo rates were fixed.
- In re Digital Music Antitrust Litigation, No. 06 MD 1780 (S.D.N.Y) – Represented Warner Music Group in connection with DOJ and NYAG investigations regarding the pricing of digital music and in class action claims filed against music companies alleging collusion in digital music pricing.
- In re Methyl-Methacrylate Antitrust Litigation, MDL-1768 (E.D. Pa.) – Represented Lucite Inc. in class actions alleging a conspiracy to fix prices of methyl-methacrylate (MMA) and polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA).
- In re Publication Paper Antitrust Litigation (MDL No. 1631, D. Conn.) – Represented a major pulp and paper producer in a nationwide antitrust action alleging an unlawful conspiracy to fix the price of publication paper.
Olivier received a Maitrise en droit (J.D.), cum laude, valedictorian, from the University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, a Diplome D'Etudes Approfondies (LL.M), cum laude, from the University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, and an LL.M, cum laude, from Fordham University School of Law. Before joining Crowell & Moring, Olivier worked at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York, where he was a litigation and antitrust attorney for eight years.
A member of the New York Bar, Olivier is the chair of the International Antitrust and Competition Law Committee of the International Law and Practice (ILP) Section of the New York State Bar Association and also serves as a member of the Steering Group for the International Antitrust Law Committee of the ABA Section of International Law.