The Federal Trade Commission on Friday cleared the way for Chevron Corp. to acquire Unocal Corp. for $18 billion, voting 4-0 to settle a two-year-old complaint against Unocal alleging anticompetitive practices.
The settlement ends a legal fight between Unocal and the FTC over the energy company’s rights to a patent for reformulated gasoline. The key element of the settlement is Chevron’s agreement not to enforce patents of a Unocal subsidiary that could have increased gasoline prices in California by over half a billion dollars a year