In Cargill, Inc. v. Monfort of Colorado, Inc., 479 U.S. 104, 107 S.Ct. 484, 93 L.Ed.2d 427 (1986), the country's fifth-largest beef packer, Monfort, sued under section 16 of the Clayton Act to enjoin a proposed merger between the third-largest packer, Spencer Beef, and the second-largest, Excel Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cargill. Monfort claimed that the proposed merger would violate section 7 of the Clayton Act. Monfort further alleged that, after the merger, Excel would attempt to increase its market share at the expense of smaller rivals such as Monfort by bidding up the price it would pay for cattle and reducing the price it charged for boxed beef. Monfort claimed that this "cost-price squeeze" would eventually enable Excel to drive smaller firms unable to match its lower prices from the market, after which Excel would raise its prices to supra-competitive levels and more than recoup the profits lost during the plan's initial phase. The Monfort Court identified two potential injuries to the plaintiff: (1) a threat of lost profits stemming from the possibility that Excel, after the merger, would lower it prices to a level at or only slightly above its costs in order to increase its market share, and (2) a threat of being driven out of business by the possibility that Excel, after the merger, would engage in sustained predatory pricing. With respect to the former, the Court held: The kind of competition that Monfort alleges here, competition for increased market share, is not activity forbidden by the antitrust laws. It is simply ... vigorous competition. To hold that the antitrust laws protect competitors from the loss of profits due to such price competition would, in effect, render illegal any decision by a firm to cut prices in order to increase market share. The antitrust laws require no such perverse result, for "it is in the interest of competition to permit dominant firms to engage in vigorous competition, including price competition." Id. at 116, 107 S.Ct. at 492 (quoting Arthur S. Langenderfer, Inc. v. S.E. Johnson Co., 729 F.2d 1050, 1057 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1036, 105 S.Ct. 511, 83 L.Ed.2d 401 (1984)). As for the second potential injury to Monfort, the Court noted that because predatory or below-cost pricing is designed to eliminate competition, in contrast to "price cutting aimed simply at increasing market share," predatory pricing is a practice " 'inimical to the purposes of the antitrust laws,' and one capable of inflicting antitrust injury." Id. 479 U.S. at 118, 107 S.Ct. at 493 (quoting Brunswick, 429 U.S. at 488, 97 S.Ct. at 697). Monfort, however, neither raised nor proved any claim of predatory pricing in the district court. Id. 479 U.S. at 119, 107 S.Ct. at 494. In Cargill, Inc. v. Monfort of Colorado, Inc., 479 U.S. 104, 107 S.Ct. 484, 93 L.Ed.2d 427 (1986), the Court drew a clear distinction for purposes of antitrust injury analysis between "price cutting aimed simply at increasing market share" and predatory pricing, which it defined as "pricing below an appropriate measure of cost for the purpose of eliminating competitors in the short ran and reducing competition in the long run." Cargill, 479 U.S. at 117-18, 107 S.Ct. at 493. Under the Court's analysis, the former is vigorous competition; only the latter is anticompetitive and capable of inflicting antitrust injury. Id.