Insights | Meridian Research Group

Mergers & Acquisitions

Salesforce/Informatica

Per the terms of the Merger Agreement (MA), the companies are set to file HSR by June 25, 2025. Recent clearances of several high-profile deals, as well as DOJ Deputy AG (DAAG) Bill Rinner’s remarks last week that competitively neutral deals should not be the subject of a “regulatory review tax” could bode well for Salesforce/Informatica’s...

NIH funding has seen some increased visibility as an issue in recent days, with the release of the White House’s formal FY26 budget proposal – which calls for cutting NIH’s funding by ~$18b (~40%) from FY25 levels – and NIH Direct Bhattacharya testifying before the Senate Appropriations Health Subcommittee regarding the President’s budget and...

Tech / Media / Telecom

Rural Broadband (BEAD)

Last Friday, the Commerce Department/NTIA announced a new process for determining how the $42.5b in funding from the BEAD rural broadband program will be distributed. The new rubric for distributing funds eliminates the Biden administration’s emphasis on fiber, as well as various other requirements (e.g., labor, availability of a low-cost plan,...

Pharmacy Benefit Managers

In recent weeks, CVS Health, Cigna’s Express Scripts, and the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) – the trade association representing PBMs – have filed separate federal lawsuits seeking to block implementation of a first-of-its-kind Arkansas law (Act 624) that prohibits PBMs from owning or operating pharmacies in the state.

Medicare/Medicaid

As the Senate makes edits to the House-passed reconciliation bill, two key threads of activity are emerging. First, as discussed in our recent comments regarding the broader reconciliation landscape, there are clear indications that the primary areas of concern amongst Senate Republicans regarding the House’s Medicaid proposals revolve around...

Energy, Financials, Healthcare, Macro, Tech / Media / Telecom

Senate Republican negotiations on changes to the House-passed reconciliation bill are intensifying. It appears that changes under consideration in the Senate increase the deficit by ~$600-700b beyond the House-passed bill’s $2.4t deficit impact, though there is consideration of adding provisions to try to close that gap. House conservatives are...