I'm confused about something and hope someone here can clear it up. A threat of stopping the sale unless the US gets paid "a substantial amount of money" sounds like extortion to me. Is there any precedence for the US getting cuts of acquisitions?
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/1702
I do not know on what basis they could therefore demand any payments, though.
When companies merge, they pay taxes on the value of the capital, stock or assets acquired during the process of a merger