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Mergers & Acquisitions
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April 04, 2024
Caterpillar 'Talking Out Both Sides,' Judge Says
A Delaware federal judge chastised Caterpillar Inc. ahead of trial in a series of orders mostly siding with claims from a defunct construction equipment supplier accusing the company of pressuring an online auctioneer to break an important contract with the would-be competitor.
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April 04, 2024
Snell & Wilmer Adds Former McDermott Partner In Dallas
A former McDermott Will & Emery partner and tax specialist has joined Snell & Wilmer's Dallas office to advise clients on cross-border transactions, particularly in Latin America and Mexico.
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April 04, 2024
Kiss Sells Their Souls To PE Fund, Throws In Music Too
Less than a year after playing their final show, members of '70s rock band Kiss said on Thursday that they're selling off their intellectual property to a private equity outfit owned by the guitarist of ABBA who is already promising investors that "plans for a biopic, an avatar show, and a Kiss-themed experience are already in the works."
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April 04, 2024
Latham Led Firms In 1st Quarter IPOs As Outlook Brightens
Latham & Watkins LLP guided the most initial public offerings among law firms in the year's first quarter, benefiting from an improved fundraising climate that is spreading optimism for IPO lawyers at many firms as the second quarter unfolds.
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April 04, 2024
Novo Holdings, Catalent Reset Review Clock On $16.5B Deal
Novo Nordisk Foundation has given the Federal Trade Commission more time for an initial review of Novo Holdings' plan to acquire Catalent in a deal that values the pharmaceutical services company at $16.5 billion.
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April 04, 2024
Structure Defense Remains In FTC Hospital Case, But Not Hearing
When the Federal Trade Commission goes to trial April 29 against an allegedly anti-competitive hospital merger, the agency won't have to contend with defense assertions that its structure is unconstitutional right away, but a North Carolina federal judge refused Thursday to scrub them entirely.
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April 04, 2024
Wash. AG Defends Authority To Block Kroger-Albertsons Deal
The Washington Attorney General's Office has told a state court that a local consumer protection law allows it to bring actions challenging anti-competitive mergers and urged the court to reject contentions from Kroger and Albertsons that the state lacks authority to block a nationwide deal.
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April 04, 2024
Large-Cap PE Specialist Moves To Sidley From Paul Weiss
A veteran private equity attorney has joined Sidley Austin LLP's mergers and acquisitions and private equity practice in New York from Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP, where he told Law360 in a Thursday interview that he will continue representing large cap private equity firms amid an anticipated uptick in both platform acquisitions and exits.
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April 04, 2024
Boston Scientific's $3.7B Axonics Buy Under FTC Microscope
Biomedical engineering company Boston Scientific Corp. on Thursday disclosed that the Federal Trade Commission requested more information on its planned $3.7 billion acquisition of medical technology company Axonics, which will result in a delay in the deal's closing.
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April 04, 2024
Ex-CEO Reaches Legal Fee Agreement With Trump-Tied SPAC
A Delaware vice chancellor has signed off on an agreement between Donald Trump-tied Digital World Acquisition Corp. and its former CEO to have the venture pay his legal costs related to federal probes and litigation in multiple states.
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April 04, 2024
Top M&A Advisers Of Q1 Include Kirkland, Skadden
Global law firms Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, Goodwin Procter LLP and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz were among the most active legal counsel providers for global mergers and acquisitions in the first quarter of this year, according to a new report from the London Stock Exchange Group.
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April 04, 2024
Del. Justices Reverse Chancery On Match.com Deal Fairness
Delaware's Supreme Court on Thursday undid a Chancery Court dismissal of a challenge to Match.com's 2019 reverse-spinoff from Barry Diller-controlled IAC Interactive, in a closely watched case rejecting the lower court's finding that Match had justified the use of a less onerous fairness test.
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April 04, 2024
Deals Rumor Mill: Alphabet, Honeywell, Syngenta IPO
Google parent Alphabet is exploring whether to make an offer to acquire software company HubSpot; Chinese regulators encouraged pesticides giant Syngenta to pull its $9 billion IPO over concerns it could unsettle China's volatile market, and Honeywell wants to sell its personal protective equipment unit. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other notable deal rumors from the past week.
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April 04, 2024
Insurer Resolution Life To Buy New Zealand Biz For $247M
Resolution Life said on Thursday that its Australasian arm has agreed to buy Asteron Life, an insurer based in New Zealand, for 410 million New Zealand dollars ($247 million), as the global group eyes entry into the country's growing insurance sector.
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April 04, 2024
Mondi £5.1B Offer Deadline For DS Smith Extended
Packaging business DS Smith said Thursday that its rival Mondi PLC has been granted extra time to make a £5.1 billion ($6.5 billion) all-share offer as a bidding war for DS with International Paper Co. continues.
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April 04, 2024
UK Deepens Probe Into Vodafone-Three Telecoms Merger
Britain's antitrust authority said Thursday that it has launched an in-depth probe into plans by Vodafone and Three to merge their U.K. telecommunications networks to create a £16.5 billion ($21 billion) mobile operator after the companies failed to alleviate competition concerns.
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April 03, 2024
Antitrust Suits Remain Low Despite Slight 2023 Spike
Federal enforcers and private plaintiffs filed more new antitrust cases last year than the year before but the slight uptick still kept 2023 as the second lowest in a decade, according to a new Lex Machina report.
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April 03, 2024
Accused 'Shadow Trader' Takes Stand To Slam SEC's Case
A former Medivation executive accused of "shadow trading" when he purchased stock in rival Incyte testified in his California federal civil trial Wednesday that he didn't base that decision on confidential information, and he didn't think even "for one second" that he was violating securities laws.
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April 03, 2024
Israel-Hamas War No Excuse To Skip Discovery: Ch. 11 Judge
A Florida bankruptcy judge on Wednesday penalized an Israeli creditor pursuing a roughly $13 million Chapter 11 claim against a California-based air purifier maker, finding the conflict between Israel and Hamas is not a valid excuse for repeatedly missing discovery deadlines.
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April 03, 2024
Hawaii Bio Power Co. Can't Add Merger-Based Antitrust Claims
A Hawaii federal magistrate judge has refused to permit the addition of new allegations, based on a 2017 fossil fuel plant acquisition, to a recently restarted lawsuit accusing the state's largest power company of anticompetitively canceling a contract for a new biomass energy plant.
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April 03, 2024
AT&T Faces Investor Suit Over $43B WarnerMedia Spinoff
A Warner Bros. Discovery shareholder accused AT&T and its CEO John Stankey of hiding how serious the company's problems were as it spun off its $43 billion WarnerMedia unit, alleging that caused Discovery to pay far too much when it merged with its fellow news and entertainment giant.
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April 03, 2024
NC AG Greenlights New Monitor For HCA Hospital Amid Probe
A new organization has taken up the baton to monitor whether HCA Healthcare is in compliance with the agreement that cemented its $1.5 billion acquisition of a North Carolina health system, a pact that is the focus of ongoing litigation between HCA and the state's attorney general.
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April 03, 2024
FIS Didn't Lie To Itself About Short-Lived Merger, Execs Say
Fidelity National's top brass recently urged a Florida federal court to toss an investor's lawsuit over a $46 billion market cap drop resulting from spinning off a payment business it had acquired a few years prior, arguing the company can't "be deceived by its own statements," which a pension fund alleged artificially inflated share prices.
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April 03, 2024
Investors Want $1.5B Penalty Awarded After PE Buyout
A group of investors is seeking to enforce a $1.5 billion judgment stemming from a 2005 private equity acquisition of Greece-based Tim Hellas Telecommunications SA that it claims ultimately enriched PE firms TPG Inc. and Apax Partners LLP to the detriment of other investors.
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April 03, 2024
Genmab Builds Oncology Portfolio With $1.8B Deal
Danish biotechnology company Genmab announced Wednesday that it would acquire private cancer drugmaker ProfoundBio for $1.8 billion in cash, a move set to beef up Genmab's oncology portfolio and position the company as a competitor to other biotech companies that have made similar deals in the antibody drug conjugate space in recent months.
Expert Analysis
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Series
Participating In Living History Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My role as a baron in a living history group, and my work as volunteer corporate counsel for a book series fan association, has provided me several opportunities to practice in unexpected areas of law — opening doors to experiences that have nurtured invaluable personal and professional skills, says Matthew Parker at the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.
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Opinion
Private Equity Owners Can Remedy Law Firms' Agency Issues
Nonlawyer, private-equity ownership of law firms can benefit shareholders and others vulnerable to governance issues such as disparate interests, and can in turn help resolve agency problems, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.
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Tech Company Trade Compliance Programs Need A Check-Up
As sanctions and export controls continue to evolve, companies in the tech sector are often affected in ways that can be difficult to spot, say Carrie Schroll and Matthew Luzadder at Kelley Drye.
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How To Protect Atty-Client Privilege While Using Generative AI
When using generative artificial intelligence tools, attorneys should consider several safeguards to avoid breaches or complications in attorney-client privilege, say Antonious Sadek and Christopher Campbell at DLA Piper.
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How New Lawyers Can Leverage Feedback For Growth
Embracing constructive criticism as a tool for success can help new lawyers accelerate their professional growth and law firms build a culture of continuous improvement, says Katie Aldrich at Fringe Professional Development.
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How Reps And Warranties Insurance Can Aid Sellers In M&A
Amid the current slowdown in the M&A climate, representation and warranty insurance offers sellers a number of advantages, including protection against fraud and possible leverage to insist on a no-seller-indemnity deal, say Alex Leibowitz and Eric Jesse at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Del. Corporate Law Overhaul Delivers On Flexibility For Cos.
Recent amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law provide needed flexibility to public companies, including by making it easier to effect stock splits or changes to authorized shares, and by streamlining the process to ratify defective corporate acts, say attorneys at Venable.
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Restructuring Concerns For Distressed De-SPACs
Distressed companies struggling to remain viable following a de-SPAC transaction can reduce uncertainty by deleveraging balance sheets, reconfiguring contractual and operational relationships, and creating new opportunities for investors via the pursuit of a prepackaged Chapter 11 reorganization plan, say attorneys at Pillsbury.
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Info Exchanges Must Stay Inside Now-Invisible Antitrust Lines
While the antitrust agencies recently withdrew long-standing enforcement policy statements for being "overly permissive" on information exchanges, we should not assume that all information exchanges are inherently suspect — they are still permissible if carefully constructed and vigorously managed, say attorneys at Nelson Mullins.
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Twitter Legal Fees Suit Offers Crash Course In Billing Ethics
X Corp.'s suit alleging that Wachtell grossly inflated its fees in the final days of Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition provides a case study in how firms should protect their reputations by hewing to ethical billing practices and the high standards for professional conduct that govern attorney-client relationships, says Lourdes Fuentes at Karta Legal.
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Blockchain Tech's Role As A Driver Of M&A Action Evolves
Distributed ledger and other blockchain derivative technologies are uniquely positioned to drive M&A activity, and will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of financial and investment landscapes despite the turmoil in the cryptocurrency space, say Louis Lehot and Pat Daugherty at Foley & Lardner.
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Amgen-Horizon Deal May Signal FTC's Return To Bargaining
The Federal Trade Commission's recent settlement of its challenge to Amgen's proposed acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics marks the latest in a string of midlitigation settlements, and may signal that competition regulators are more inclined toward such negotiations following recent litigation losses, say attorneys at Freshfields.
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Transaction Risks In Residential Mortgage M&A Due Diligence
As the residential mortgage market continues to consolidate due to interest rate increases and low housing volume, buyers and sellers should pay attention to a number of compliance considerations ranging from fair lending laws to employee classification, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.
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ABA's Money-Laundering Resolution Is A Balancing Act
While the American Bar Association’s recently passed resolution recognizes a lawyer's duty to discontinue representation that could facilitate money laundering and other fraudulent activity, it preserves, at least for now, the delicate balance of judicial, state-based regulation of the legal profession and the sanctity of the attorney-client relationship, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.
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With Equity Markets Down, Venture Lending Provides Solution
Given the growth of private debt funds, new entrants in the market and equity markets remaining sluggish, more borrowers are turning to venture debt financing, with long-standing venture funds offering flexibility and expertise without the risks of larger banks, says Jennifer Post at Thompson Coburn.