The United States' Department of Justice has notified the PGA Tour it will be launching an investigation into the deal between the Tour and the Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund for antitrust concerns, according to the Wall Street Journal. Antitrust scrutiny was anticipated following the announcement of the deal last Tuesday; the plan is to house commercial golf operations under a single for-profit entity.
A PGA Tour executive told staff members it will not know the outcome of this proposed deal for at least a year given the legal review process, per the WSJ. Not only could the Justice Department choose to block this deal, the PGA Tour and PIF still have a long way to go in terms of finalizing the agreement itself. The deal notably ended all litigation between the two parties, but a different set of legal troubles may be ahead.
The reported DOJ moves comes after pleas from Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter to further investigate the matter. This is in addition to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), requesting information from PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman to evaluate whether the two sides can legally come together in the deal.
The Federal Trade Commission continues to hold an aggressive stance against mergers and acquisitions. Deals to fall through at the hands of the DOJ and FTC include: Lockheed Martin's acquisition of Aerojet and most recently the merger between American Airlines and JetBlue last month.
The optics were further complicated when the PGA Tour announced the news that Monahan is recovering from an unspecified medical situation. No additional details regarding his status have been shared.
"All of our priorities remain unchanged," PGA Tour executive vice president Tyler Dennis said Wednesday on Golf Channel. "We had a big announcement last week and nothing is changing in that regard. We're working very hard toward the definitive agreements. There'll be a lot of news on that subject in the coming weeks and months."
