http://www.law360.com/ Latest articles for organization: Merrill Lynch Copyright 2009 Portfolio Media, Inc. en-US http://www.law360.com/images/headings/logo.gif http://www.law360.com/ http://www.law360.com/articles/135184 Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Inc. has asked a judge to dismiss a complaint in the multidistrict litigation over auction rate securities, arguing that Community Trust Bank Inc.'s allegation that Merrill Lynch surreptitiously manipulated the ARS market doesn't hold water. http://www.law360.com/articles/135184 http://www.law360.com/articles/135132 The Blackstone Group's Pinnacle Foods Group LLC has reached a definitive agreement to purchase frozen food giant Birds Eye Foods Inc. for $1.3 billion. http://www.law360.com/articles/135132 http://www.law360.com/articles/134863 Wells Fargo & Co. has reached agreements to buy back about $1.3 billion in auction rate securities and pay a $1.9 million penalty to the state regulators that investigated allegations the bank misled customers about the riskiness of the investment. http://www.law360.com/articles/134863 http://www.law360.com/articles/134839 A federal judge has partially lifted a discovery stay in a securities suit against Bank of America Corp. over its merger with Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., providing the plaintiffs with access to the same documents the bank has already shown to several government agencies. http://www.law360.com/articles/134839 http://www.law360.com/articles/134537 Bank of America NA officials defended the company's purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co. before the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, denying speculation that BofA's top lawyer was booted midtransaction for implying the bank had no legal grounds to pull out of the deal. http://www.law360.com/articles/134537 http://www.law360.com/articles/134700 The Federal Reserve Bank of New York failed to use its “considerable leverage” in negotiations in fall 2008 to reduce the amount of money it spent to help American International Group Inc. stay alive, according to a report assessing the U.S. government's involvement in the bailout. http://www.law360.com/articles/134700 http://www.law360.com/articles/134370 Hong Kong-based Meadville Holdings Ltd. has agreed to sell off its printed circuit board business to TTM International Inc. for $521 million, a move that will create one of the largest PCB manufacturers in the world with combined 2008 annual sales of $1.35 billion. http://www.law360.com/articles/134370 http://www.law360.com/articles/133820 Medical diagnostic testing company Quest Diagnostics Inc. announced Thursday it will offer $750 million in senior notes in a bid to buy back other outstanding debt. http://www.law360.com/articles/133820 http://www.law360.com/articles/133023 Employers in the financial services industry have been particularly hard hit recently by claims that many of their most highly paid employees have been misclassified as exempt. Identifying any issues, and addressing them head on, prior to litigation can save thousands, if not millions, of dollars, say Randy Gidseg, Stephen Jones and Joseph Carello of Nixon Peabody LLP. http://www.law360.com/articles/133023 http://www.law360.com/articles/133582 The judge overseeing Fred Leighton Holdings Inc.'s bankruptcy proceedings confirmed the jeweler's amended Chapter 11 plan a week after greenlighting the $26 million sale of Fred Leighton Holding's business operations to a group of investors. http://www.law360.com/articles/133582 http://www.law360.com/articles/133426 Luis R. Mejia, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement Division's chief litigation counsel, has decided to make a move to DLA Piper's Washington office. http://www.law360.com/articles/133426 http://www.law360.com/articles/133035 Warren S. de Wied — former managing director of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.'s mergers and acquisitions group and former co-leader of Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP's mergers and acquisitions practice — has joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC as a partner. http://www.law360.com/articles/133035 http://www.law360.com/articles/132793 Plaintiffs’ counsel in shareholder derivative litigation over alleged misrepresentations associated with Bank of America Corp.’s purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. have won permission to subpoena deal adviser Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, the bank’s defense counsel Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and former Merrill CEO John A. Thain. http://www.law360.com/articles/132793 http://www.law360.com/articles/132593 Investment firm TPG Capital LP and Canada-based pension manager CPP Investment Board will acquire IMS Health Inc., a provider of market intelligence to the health care and pharmaceutical industries, in a leveraged buyout deal valued at $5.2 billion. http://www.law360.com/articles/132593 http://www.law360.com/articles/132156 A federal jury has ruled that Former New York Stock Exchange President Gerald Putnam and two others defrauded a former business partner out of millions of dollars related to the development of electronic stock exchange Archipelago Holdings LLC. http://www.law360.com/articles/132156 http://www.law360.com/articles/132062 Five months after fessing up to falsifying books and records, the former chief financial officer of Enron Broadband Services Inc. has been hit with one year of probation — including nine months of home confinement — and a $25,000 fine. http://www.law360.com/articles/132062 http://www.law360.com/articles/132021 A judge has approved the sale of bankrupt jeweler Fred Leighton Holding Inc.’s business operations for $25.8 million in cash to investors including a group of private equity firms and estate jewelry seller Windsor Jewelers Inc., allowing for a quick change in ownership ahead of the holiday shopping season. http://www.law360.com/articles/132021 http://www.law360.com/articles/131702 The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in a case filed by a group of clients alleging mutual fund manager Harris Associates LP charged excessive fees, and all sides appeared to walk away from an appellate court ruling that could have significantly altered the fee structure of the $11.5 trillion mutual fund industry. http://www.law360.com/articles/131702 http://www.law360.com/articles/130155 The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments from a group of clients alleging that mutual fund manager Harris Associates LP charged excessive fees, in a case that observers say could have a dramatic effect on the fee structure of the $11.5 trillion mutual fund industry. http://www.law360.com/articles/130155 http://www.law360.com/articles/131349 Delphi Corp. has settled a dispute with Appaloosa Management LP over the hedge fund's decision to pull out of a $2.55 billion financing deal that derailed the auto parts supplier's emergence from bankruptcy in 2008. http://www.law360.com/articles/131349