Insights | Meridian Research Group | Page 20

Tech / Media / Telecom

President Trump has made repeated comments this week indicating that negotiations are underway regarding a divestment of TikTok’s U.S. operations. He has also floated the idea of the U.S. government owning 50% of the company, which has evoked a skeptical response from some Congressional Republicans. And, reports suggest that the White House is...

Macro, Tech / Media / Telecom

Export Controls & Tariffs (AI/Semiconductors)

In reaction to the Chinese app DeepSeek showing high levels of performance using less than fully advanced semiconductors, China hawks in Congress are calling upon the Trump administration to strengthen semiconductor export controls. Howard Lutnick, President Trump’s nominee for Commerce Secretary (which has jurisdiction over export controls) said...

Mergers & Acquisitions

JNJ/Intra-Cellular

Executive Summary Since our initial update, we have gotten feedback from more physicians (who are users of most of the drugs in question and not involved in related clinical trials) suggesting that the proposed merger is unlikely to diminish competition to any substantial degree in the drug markets where the companies have overlapping indications....

Reconciliation & Debt Limit

House Republicans are conducting their planning retreat in Florida this week, at which they are trying to achieve unity on their various fiscal priorities. Thus far, they have not outlined any plans beyond those on which we commented last Friday. The most notable development was a speech by President Trump, at which he not only re-iterated his...

Permitting Reform

A variety of developments have occurred that signal growing interest among policymakers in reforming/streamlining permitting for energy infrastructure. Republicans have long focused on this issue in order to facilitate the build out of more oil/gas production and distribution infrastructure, while Democrats have increased their focus on...

Federal Elections

It appears House Republicans are on track to win a net ~2-4 seats, retaining a very narrow majority of ~223-226 votes. With a 218 vote majority required for bills to pass in the House, Republicans will only be able to spare ~5-8 votes, which means a small faction will have leverage on legislation that passes on a partisan basis. Since both...