BABA - China's antitrust regulator is said to consider breaking into several units

China's antitrust regulator is said to be looking at separating into several bureaus and increasing its workforce to handle a bigger workload.The Anti-Monopoly Bureau of China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) is currently researching the potential move, according to Dealreporter. One option may be to spin off the merger review division and the antitrust probe unit.SAMR is busier than before as the Chinese government has a new focus on antitrust policy in the Internet sector in the past year as evidenced by the recent fine against Alibaba (BABA). On Monday, food delivery company Meituan fell after China started an antitrust probe.Big U.S. tech deals still requiring Chinese antitrust approvals include Analog Devices's (ADI) planned purchase of Maxim Integrated (MXIM) and AMD's (AMD) deal for Xilinx (XLNX). Yesterday, it was reported that SAMR approved Goodyear's purchase of Cooper Tire and Teledyne's purchase of FLIR Systems.

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China's antitrust regulator is said to consider breaking into several units