Anti-trust a Magic Number

Am I the only one that finds the anti-trust aspect of the GGP/Simon saga to be silly?  Is there a magic number of malls that make a monopoly?  From the WSJ:

Simon had offered in recent days to commit to divesting up to 10 million square feet, amounting to roughly 25 to 30 malls, if the Federal Trade Commission requires such action in its antitrust review of any Simon-General Growth combination, these people say…  Simon owns roughly 245 million square feet of retail properties in the U.S. General Growth owns roughly 183 million square feet.

So Simon already owns 245 million feet, might own 183 million more after the acquisition, and 10 or 20 million feet of that total might be the difference between the FTC stepping in or not?

Really?  Lets say it’s 40 million feet that is the magic number.  A difference of 10% of your portfolio of 400 million feet of mall space is the difference between having a consumer protection issue and not having one?

That’s silly.

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