Daniel Culley’s practice focuses on antitrust counseling and antitrust litigation.

His work includes counseling, merger control, antitrust litigation, and civil and criminal government investigations, particularly for high-tech industries and two-sided markets. Daniel has represented clients in federal and state courts and advised clients in both criminal and civil investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice, the FTC, state agencies, and the European Commission.

Daniel joined the firm in 2008 and became partner in the Washington, D.C. office in 2017. From 2018 to 2020, he split his time between the Washington and Brussels offices.

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Notable Experiences

Merger Review

  • T-Mobile US and Deutsche Telekom in T-Mobile US’s merger with Sprint Corporation for a total combined enterprise value of $146 billion and T-Mobile US in its acquisition of Mint Mobile

  • Veolia Environnement S.A. before the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Veolia’s hostile acquisition of Suez S.A. through a public takeover bid

  • CRH in several contemplated and completed transactions, including its acquisition of Rinker Materials and its $1.9 billion acquisition of Barrette Outdoor Living, Inc.

  • KaMin in the purchase of the kaolin minerals business from BASF

  • Essilor in securing unconditional EU and U.S. clearance for its €46 billion acquisition of Luxottica, owner of Ray-Ban and Oakley

  • 3M in its $6.7 billion acquisition of Acelity Inc. and its KCI subsidiaries from a consortium comprised of funds advised by Apax Partners

  • Broadcom Inc. in various matters, including its acquisition of Broadlight and its $18.9 billion acquisition of CA Technologies

  • Airbus in various antitrust matters, including its announced acquisition of Bombardier’s C Series program

  • LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE, the world’s largest luxury goods company, in its $16.2 billion acquisition of global luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co.

  • Warburg Pincus and its portfolio company, Electronic Funds Source, in the sale of EFS to WEX Inc. for approximately $1.1 billion in cash and four million shares of WEX common stock; cleared without condition by the FTC after a seven-month investigation

  • OpenText in its $1.62 billion acquisition of Dell EMC’s enterprise content division

  • Duravant in its $175 million acquisition of Key Technology

  • Keysight in its $1.6 billion acquisition of Ixia

  • Vale in its $2.5 billion sale of fertilizer assets and acquisition of a minority interest in Mosaic

  • Scientific Games Corporation in its $1.5 billion acquisition of WMS industries, Inc.

  • New Media Investment Group Inc. in the SEC-registered spin off of shares of New Media owned by Newcastle Investment Corp., a REIT managed by Fortress Investment Group, and SEC-registered follow-on offerings of common shares through a block trade

  • GTCR and IQNavigator in their acquisition of Beeline, Adecco’s vendor management systems business

  • Vista Equity Partners and Lanyon Solutions in their acquisition of Cvent, an event software provider

  • Numerous transactions in the cement industry, including: Votorantim in its sale of the Suwanee American Cement plant in Central Florida to CRH; Italcementi and Italmobiliare in the $4.1 billion acquisition of Italcementi by Heidelberg Cement; and Lafarge in its €40 billion merger of equals with Holcim, which created the world’s largest construction materials company

  • The Coca-Cola Company in its $2.15 billion acquisition of a 16.7 percent equity stake in Monster Beverage Corporation

  • GTCR and Sterigenics in its acquisition of its supplier Nordion

  • Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. in the sale of the majority of its mechanical security businesses to dormakaba for $725 million

  • ArcelorMittal in its $1.55 billion acquisition of ThyssenKrupp Steel USA

  • Western Digital in its $4.8 billion acquisition of Hitachi’s hard-disk business

  • IMS Health (now IQVIA) in its acquisition of SDI Health

  • Google in several matters, including its announced sale of its Terra Bella satellite business, including the SkySat constellation of satellites, to Planet Labs; its acquisition of API management platform Apigee; and its previous acquisition of AdMob

  • GlaxoSmithKline in several product divestitures

  • Samsonite in its $1.8 billion acquisition of Tumi

  • Higher One in its proposed acquisition by an affiliate of Blackboard Inc.

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Antitrust Litigation

  • T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom in the federal court trial brought by a coalition of state attorneys general challenging the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, which resulted in a combined company with an enterprise value of $146 billion

  • Change Healthcare in successfully defeating a challenge brought by the U.S. DOJ in a federal trial seeking to block the $13.8 billion merger between UnitedHealth Group’s Optum unit and Change Healthcare

  • Assa Abloy in a federal trial brought by the U.S. DOJ seeking to block its $4.3 billion acquisition of Spectrum Brands’ Hardware and Home Improvement

  • JetBlue Airways in a federal trial brought by the U.S. DOJ and state AGs to block its $3.8 billion acquisition of Spirit Airlines

  • Korean Air in its DOJ investigation of its acquisition of the other leading global airline carrier based in Korea, Asiana

  • BNP Paribas in defending against a purported class action filed by the Pennsylvania pension fund alleging manipulation of supranational, sub-sovereign, and agency debt (SSA bonds)

  • Goldman Sachs in defending consolidated putative class action cases brought against numerous foreign exchange dealers alleging antitrust conspiracies based on the alleged manipulation of benchmark exchange rates for a broad range of currencies

  • Sabre in monopolization litigation brought by American Airlines, including at trial in Texas state courts before successful negotiation of a settlement

  • The Dow Chemical Company in post-trial litigation of a class action involving the urethanes industry

  • Deutsche Post’s DHL Global Forwarding business in defending against a purported class action (now settled) alleging a conspiracy to fix surcharges and fees in the freight forwarding industry

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Publications

“2024 Antitrust Update: Agencies Sharpen Their Teeth, But Is It All Bark and No Bite?” Cleary Gottlieb Selected Issues for Boards of Directors in 2024, January 2024.

“A Practitioner’s Perspective on Negotiating Remedies,” Guide to Merger Remedies (5th Edition), Global Competition Review, October 2023. 

“FTC & DOJ Propose Radical Changes to Merger Guidelines,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memorandum, co-authored with Elaine Ewing, Jeremy J. Calsyn, Leah Brannon, Matthew I. Bachrack, David I. Gelfand, D. Bruce Hoffman, Steven J. Kaiser, Gabriel J. Lazarus, Kenneth Reinker, Ryan Shores, Brian Byrne, George S. Cary, and Heather S. Nyong’o, July 2023.

“Sweeping Changes to Premerger (HSR) Process in the United States Proposed by Enforcement Agencies,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memorandum, co-authored with Matthew Bachrack, Leah Brannon, Jeremy Calsyn, Elaine Ewing, David Gelfand, Bruce Hoffman, Steven Kaiser, Kenneth Reinker, Brian Byrne, and George Cary, June 2023.

“FTC Proposes Rule to Ban Non-Competes,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memorandum, co-authored with Michael J. Albano, Jeremy J. Calsyn, Daniel P. Culley, Elaine Ewing, D. Bruce Hoffman, Benet J. O’Reilly, Kimberly R. Spoerri, and Michael Goldenberg, January 2023.

“The Change Healthcare Decision and Implications for Private Equity Sponsors,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memorandum, co-authored with David I. Gelfand, David Leinwand, Matthew P. Salerno, and John A. Kupiec, October 2022.

The UK Supreme Court Holds That an English Court Can Enjoin Infringement of a UK SEP Where the Infringer Is Willing to Take a UK License, but Refuses to Take a Worldwide Licence on FRAND Terms (Huawei / Unwired Planet)

“Preferential Treatment by Big Techs: The Danger Will Be in the Details,” JOTA, co-authored with Bruce Hoffman, July 2022.

“Global Merger Control and Foreign Direct Investment Considerations Associated with Cross-Border Transactions,” Competition Policy International, co-authored with Chase D. Kaniecki, William Segal and, William S. Dawley, June 2022.

“U.S. DOJ and FTC Announce Plan to Revamp Merger Guidelines,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memorandum, co-authored with Leah Brannon, Brian Byrne, Jeremy J. Calsyn, George S. Cary, Daniel P. Culley, Elaine Ewing, David I. Gelfand, D. Bruce Hoffman, Heather S. Nyong’o and Kenneth Reinker, January 2022.

“U.S. & UK Consult on Standard Essential Patents, Injunctions, FRAND Licensing, and Antitrust,” Cleary Antitrust Watch, co-authored with Jessica Hollis and Maurits Dolmans, December 2021.

“Negotiating the Remedy: A Practitioner’s Perspective,” Guide to Merger Remedies (4th Edition), Global Competition Review, November 2021.

“United States,” The Dominance and Monopolies Review – Edition 9, 2021. 

“The ‘Twenty-First Century Antitrust Act’ Raises the Risks of Doing Business in New York,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memorandum, co-authored with Leah Brannon, Brian Byrne, Jeremy J. Calsyn, George S. Cary, Alexis Collins, Elaine Ewing, David I. Gelfand, D. Bruce Hoffman, Mark W. Nelson, Kenneth Reinker, June 2021.

T-Mobile Sprint: Winning The Case The Experts Said Couldn’t Be Won Podcast, Episode 2, The Deal, October 2020.

“The Failing Firm Defence in the Age of COVID-19,” Concurrences, November 2020. 

“United States,” The Dominance and Monopolies Review – Edition 8, 2020.

“Analysis of the UK Supreme Court’s Decision in Unwired Planet v Huawei,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, co-authored with Maurits Dolmans, Paul Gilbert, Fay Davies and Thomas Graf, October 2020.

“European Court Raises the EC’s Bar for Mergers in Concentrated Markets,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, co-authored with Francisco Enrique González-Díaz, Patrick Bock, Bernd Langeheine, Richard Pepper, Nicholas Levy, Marco D’Ostuni and Séverine Schrameck, July 2020.

“U.S. Agencies Publish Final Revised Vertical Merger Guidelines,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, co-authored with  Leah Brannon, Brian Byrne, Jeremy J. Calsyn, George S. Cary, Elaine Ewing, David I. Gelfand, D. Bruce Hoffman, Mark W. Nelson, Kenneth Reinker, July 2020.

“Avoiding or Defeating Potential Antitrust and Other Civil Suits Relating to Anti-Price Gouging Laws,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memorandum, co-author with Leah Brannon, Brian Byrne, Jeremy J. Calsyn, George S. Cary, Alexis Collins, Elaine Ewing, David I. Gelfand, D. Bruce Hoffman, Mark W. Nelson, and Kenneth Reinker, June 2020.

“Key Considerations for the Telecoms Industry,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memorandum, co-author with Marco D’Ostuni, Francisco Enrique González-Díaz, Chris Macbeth and Bernd Langeheine, June 2020.

“Vertical Merger Enforcement Actions: 1994–April 2020,” Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works, co-author with Steven Salop, April 2020.

“Competitor Collaboration in Times of Crisis,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memorandum, co-author with Bruce Hoffman, Daniel P. Culley, Richard Pepper, Konstantin Bondarenko, Alexis Lazda, Savannah Haynes, Marcellin Jehl, and Quinten De Keersmaecker, April 2020. 

“Europe’s Economic Response to the COVID-19 Crisis—the European Commission Steps In,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memorandum, co-author with Amélie Champsaur, François‑Charles Laprévote, and Till Müller‑Ibold, March 2020. 

“United States,” The Dominance and Monopolies Review – Edition 7, 2019.

“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: lessons from the United States’ century of experience with cartel follow-on damages,” Competition Law & Policy Debate, Vol 4,  December 2018.

“United States,” The Dominance and Monopolies Review – Edition 6, 2018.

“Concerted Action in Standard-Setting,” The Cambridge Handbook of Technical Standardization Law, co-author with George Cary, December 2017.

The Dominance and Monopolies Review: United States, ed. Maurits Dolmans, August 2017.

“Revising the U.S. Vertical Merger Guidelines: Policy Issues and an Interim Guide for Practitioners,” Journal of Antitrust Enforcement, November 3, 2015. (This article has been cited numerous times, including by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and in remarks by the current Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition; in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee; in reports by various policy institutes and economic firms; in articles published in a variety of academic, legal and business publications; and in The New York Times and The New Yorker.)

The Dominance and Monopolies Review: United States, ed. Maurits Dolmans, July 2014.

“Learning from Rambus — How to Tame Those Troublesome Trolls,” co-author with Maurits Dolmans and Malik Dhanani, The Antitrust Bulletin, Vol. 57, No.1/Spring 2012.

“Transatlantic Lessons for Platform Software Developers,” The Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, 2007.

Events