FTC Bid to Stop Mattress Deal Puts Spotlight on Vertical Mergers

The Federal Trade Commission’s suit to block Tempur Sealy International Inc.‘s plans to purchase Mattress Firm for $4 billion will provide insights into how courts evaluate vertical deals between two firms at different levels of the supply chain.

The FTC last week unanimously voted to bring a lawsuit to stop the acquisition, which would combine a manufacturer of top brands including Tempur-Pedic, Sealy Posturepedic, and Stearns & Foster with Mattress Firm, a US specialty retailer with thousands of brick-and-mortar stores.

The case is the first FTC challenge involving a vertical deal since the agency and the Justice Department in December ...