The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Thursday challenging the acquisition last June by Bazaarvoice Inc of its main rival, saying that the required antitrust clearance was never sought and that the deal reduced competition for product ratings platforms.Shares of Bazaarvoice slumped on news of the lawsuit over its $168.2 million purchase of PowerReviews Inc, falling 15.8 percent to $7.49 on Nasdaq.The two firms help companies use social media to advertise and also try to control any damage to clients' reputations from bad reviews. PowerReviews helped online retailers set up customer review sections on their websites so that they could compete with Amazon.com.The Justice Department, which noted that Bazaarvoice's purchase of PowerReviews Inc has been completed, asked the court to require Bazaarvoice to divest certain assets, and by doing so create a new company to replace PowerReviews.
Bazaarvoice, Inc. (Bazaarvoice) is provider of social commerce solutions that help its clients capture, display and analyze online word of mouth, including consumer-generated ratings and reviews, questions and answers, stories, recommendations, photographs, videos and other content about its clients' brands, products or services. Shares of BV fell by 15.84% or $-1.41/share to $7.49. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $8.62 and as high as $21.10. On average, 599988 shares of BV exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1860059.
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