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Mergers & Acquisitions
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May 22, 2013
Archer Inks $244M Deal To Sell Unit To Clearlake
Oslo, Norway-based oil services company Archer LT announced Wednesday that it is selling one of its North American divisions to an affiliate of Los Angeles private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group LP for $244 million, an all-cash deal set to help payoff some of the company's debt.
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May 21, 2013
Incoming UK Antitrust Chief Vows More Efficiency
The U.K.'s Office of Fair Trading on Tuesday named four new directors to lead its cartels, mergers and economics units as the incoming leaders of the country's new competition regime continued to vow faster, more efficient enforcement.
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May 21, 2013
Feds Oppose Settlement Behind $320M LifeCare Sale
The U.S. government asked a Delaware bankruptcy judge Tuesday to reject a deal underpinning the $320 million sale of private equity-owned LifeCare Holdings Inc., saying the proposed settlement is impermissible because it would pay the hospital group's unsecured creditors ahead of federal tax claims.
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May 21, 2013
NetSpend Investors Can’t Block $1.4B Sale Over PE Favoritism
A Delaware Chancery judge on Tuesday denied a bid by NetSpend Corp. shareholders to block the prepaid debit card provider’s planned $1.4 billion sale for allegedly favoring two private equity shareholders, ruling the investors hadn’t shown they could scuttle the deal at trial.
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May 21, 2013
NFP Directors Sued Over $1.3B Madison Dearborn Deal
The directors and executives of brokerage services firm National Financial Partners Corp. were hit with a proposed shareholder class action Tuesday over its April deal to be acquired by private equity investment firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC for $1.3 billion.
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May 21, 2013
BNY Mellon Win In Lyondell LBO Case Upheld By NY Court
A New York state appeals court on Tuesday said Bank of New York Mellon Corp. did not breach a fiduciary duty in its handling of Basell AF SCA's leveraged buyout of Lyondell Chemical Co. that bankrupted both companies, affirming a lower court's decision.
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May 21, 2013
Appeals Court Backs RE Mogul In Nursing Home Buyout Row
A New York state appellate court on Tuesday unanimously affirmed decisions in favor of real estate investor Rubin Schron and against Mariner Health Care Inc. and others in a nursing home purchasing dispute, saying the defendants’ new evidence was cumulative and would not have changed the outcomes.
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May 21, 2013
Dechert Advises Morgan Creek In Signet Funds Deal
Investment advisory firm Morgan Creek Capital Management has inked a deal to scoop up the alternative funds business of Signet Capital Management Ltd., nabbing two new European footholds in the process, the company announced Tuesday.
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May 21, 2013
Novo To Lay Down $700M For Antibiotics Specialist Xellia
Novo A/S, the holding company for Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk A/S, has agreed to purchase majority venture capital-owned Norwegian antibiotic drug specialist Xellia Pharmaceuticals A/S for $700 million, the companies announced Tuesday.
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May 21, 2013
McCarter Nabs Sullivan & Worcester PE Fund Pro In NY
Veteran private equity and venture capital attorney Joseph W. Bartlett, counsel for Greylock Partners and Bain Capital LLC in their early years, has joined McCarter & English LLP as a special counsel in New York, McCarter said Monday.
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May 21, 2013
Highmark Says UPMC Can't Fight Sanctions In Antitrust Row
Highmark Inc. on Tuesday defended its bid for sanctions against The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in the contentious antitrust battle over Highmark’s acquisition of West Penn Allegheny Health System Inc., saying UPMC has created an “alternate universe” by staunchly opposing the sanctions.
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May 21, 2013
Yahoo To Take 4 Floors At Former NY Times Building
Yahoo Inc. will move its 500 New York employees from several Manhattan offices to four stories at the former New York Times building in connection with its $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr, CEO Marissa Mayer announced at a press conference following the merger announcement Monday.
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May 21, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Dish, Alere, Raytheon
Dish Network's chairman served up a $2 billion offer for wireless spectrum controlled by bankrupt LightSquared, while an activist investor is ratcheting up pressure on multibillion-dollar life sciences firm Alere to seek out a buyer.
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May 21, 2013
Philip Morris To Pay $700M For Slim's Slice Of Mexican JV
Tobacco giant Philip Morris International Inc. will put up about $700 million to buy the slice of its Mexican business that it doesn't already own in a deal that will lift ownership from a longtime partner, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, the company said Tuesday.
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May 21, 2013
KKR To Sell $255M Stake In Australia's Seven West Media
Private equity titan KKR & Co. LP has begun to sell off its entire AU$260 million (US$254.9 million) stake in Australia's Seven West Media Ltd., operator of the biggest free-to-air television network Down Under, Seven West announced in an exchange filing Tuesday.
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May 21, 2013
Oreck Reaches Deal With Creditors On Expedited Asset Sale
Bankrupt vacuum cleaner manufacturer Oreck Corp. and its unsecured creditors on Tuesday came to a working agreement on a streamlined asset sale to an inside stalking-horse buyer, assuaging some concerns by creditors that Oreck was trying to skirt reorganization plan requirements and other creditor protections.
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May 21, 2013
BlackRock Buys PE Adviser To Double Real Estate Holdings
Global investment manager BlackRock Inc. will add $12 billion in new global real estate assets to its management portfolio, concentrated in Asia and Europe, with a new deal to buy private equity advisory firm MGPA Ltd., according to a Tuesday statement.
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May 21, 2013
Akin Gump Aids Laredo On $438M Asset Sale To EnerVest
Laredo Petroleum Holdings Inc. will sell all of its oil and gas assets in the Anadarko Basin in Oklahoma and Texas to EnerVest Ltd. for $438 million in cash, the Oklahoma-based independent energy company said Tuesday.
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May 21, 2013
Marine Harvest Mulls Hiking $1.7B Buyout Bid For Cermaq
Norwegian fish farmer Marine Harvest ASA confirmed Tuesday that it would consider raising its $1.7 billion bid for rival Cermaq ASA if the target company scraps plans to pick up a Peruvian fish meal manufacturer through an acquisition of its own.
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May 21, 2013
Sprint's Sweetened $2.5B Bid Delays Clearwire Vote
Sprint Nextel Corp. upped its controversial takeover bid for Clearwire Corp. to about $2.5 billion just hours before it was set to go before Clearwire shareholders Tuesday, pushing the meeting until next week and giving Clearwire’s board and disgruntled investors plenty to think about.
Expert Analysis
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Bazaarvoice-PowerReviews Merger Case: Where's The Beef?
Reading the U.S. Department of Justice's complaint challenging the consummated merger between Bazaarvoice Inc. and PowerReviews Inc. reminds me of the old Wendy’s commercial in which a little old lady looks at a tiny fast-food hamburger and asks, “Where’s the beef?” The absence of actual evidence of anti-competitive impact sits at odds with successful post-merger challenges, says David Balto of the Law Offices of David A. Balto.
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Rise Of The Machines — Predictive Coding Goes Mainstream
The pros of using predictive coding far outweigh the cons. Given the heavy pressure on law firms and in-house counsel to reduce discovery costs, as well as the Justice Department's recent stance on the subject, it appears predictive coding will continue to emerge from the obscure world of legal technology to the mainstream of legal practice, say Michael Moscato and Myles Bartley of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
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PE Investors Should Consider Behavioral Health
As demand for behavioral health services increases, and those individuals with need have insurance that will pay for it, the growth potential for behavioral health services is significant. Private equity investors are well-poised for jumping into this market to bring new business models and innovation to the industry, say attorneys with McGuireWoods LLP.
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SEC’s Unbundling Rules Get Breath Of Life
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision’s “unbundling” requirements have largely been the stuff of SEC lore — periodically referred to but rarely seen in corporate governance matters. However, thanks to the high profile dispute between David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital and Apple, the unbundling rules may finally be coming out of the shadows, say attorneys with King & Spalding LLP.
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Recent Trends In M&A And Corporate Fiduciary Litigation
In 2012, shareholders challenged 93 percent of all merger and acquisition transactions with a value greater than $100 million and 96 percent of M&A transactions with a value greater than $500 million. In other words, it almost is inevitable nowadays that litigation will follow a merger or going private announcement — with an average of about five lawsuits per transaction, say attorneys with Arnold & Porter LLP.
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5 Reasons For Optimism In The Venture Capital Community
Not every company can be the next Facebook. But thankfully, for many startups, generating one billion users is not the end goal, nor should it be. Enter “narrowcasting” — one of a few reasons to be optimistic about venture capital, despite the first quarter of 2013 being the slowest for fundraising since 2002, says David Kaufman of Thompson Coburn LLP.
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Know The IRS Stance On Acquisition Deduction Issues
In the past, the IRS informally warned taxpayers not to seek technical advice on the applicability of the “which day” rule in the acquisition contex because they might not be happy with the agency's position. These statements were prescient, as the IRS recently released guidance on the subject, say attorneys with Paul Hastings LLP.
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A Model For Facing Meritless Derivative Suits In Pa.
The decision by the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in In re H.J. Heinz Co. Derivative and Class Action Litigation represents a faithful application of the American Law Institute’s Principles of Corporate Governance, which were formally adopted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in the landmark decision Cuker v. Mikalauskas, say attorneys with Dechert LLP.
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Appraisal Rights — The Next Frontier In Deal Litigation?
Although it is too early to predict whether we will see a true wave of appraisal cases, current market conditions and developments suggest that dissenters’ rights may merit a reappraisal, say attorneys with Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
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SEC Tees Up Private Equity Enforcement Issues
Recent remarks by Bruce Karpati, chief of the Asset Management Unit of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as recent enforcement cases by the SEC, demonstrate an increased focus on the private equity sector — in particular, on aggressive fundraising disclosures, conflicts of interest and “zombie funds,” among other things, say Scott Naidech and Garrett Lynam of Chadbourne & Parke LLP.