Transocean / Valaris Merger: DOJ's Second Request, Is it a Bust?

May 15, 2026

“It didn’t look that bad” . . . that’s what I texted to a buddy. Transocean’s (“RIG”) earnings that is. Not sure why it’s down 8% the day earnings were released this week.

Keep reading the filings though . . . ah there it is, a second Form 8K, which says . . .

Anti-trust. A “second request” from the Department of Justice (“DOJ”). I guess you can’t effectively oligopolize a sector and not expect at least some deeper analysis from the DOJ. Fair enough.

We knew this would be coming, but how do we walk through the analysis? How do we discount the risk of the US denying RIG’s ability to close the Valaris (“VAL”) acquisition?

Well let’s take a look.