No corporation of this state engaged in trade or commerce shall acquire, directly or indirectly, the whole or any part of the stock or other share capital of another corporation also engaged in trade or commerce, where the effect of such acquisition may be to substantially lessen competition between the corporation whose stock is so acquired and the corporation making the acquisition, or to restrain such trade or commerce in any section or community, or tend to created a monopoly of any line of trade or commerce.

No such corporation shall acquire, directly or indirectly, the whole or any part of the stock or other share capital of two or more corporations engaged in trade or commerce where the effect of such acquisition, or the use of such stock by the voting or granting of proxies or otherwise may be to substantially lessen competition between such corporations, or any of them, whose stock or other share capital is so acquired, or to restrain trade or commerce in any section or community, or tend to create a monopoly of any line of trade or commerce.

Nothing contained in this section shall apply to corporations subject to the jurisdiction of the board of public utility commissioners under Title 48, Public Utilities, nor to corporations purchasing such stock solely for investment and not using the same by voting or otherwise to bring about, or in attempting to bring about, the substantial lessening of competition, nor to prevent a corporation engaged in trade or commerce from causing the formation of subsidiary corporations for the actual carrying on of their immediate lawful business, or the natural and legitimate branches or extensions thereof, or from owning and holding all or a part of the stock of such subsidiary corporations, when the effect of such formation is not to substantially lessen competition.

This section shall not be held to affect or impair any right legally acquired before March twenty-eighth, one thousand nine hundred and seventeen.

L.1937, c. 188.