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Mergers & Acquisitions
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March 14, 2024
Gamers Seek To Block Microsoft From 'Dismantling' Activision
Gamers who are still challenging Microsoft's now-completed union with gaming titan Activision Blizzard say a California federal court must hand down an order stopping further integration of the two businesses after Microsoft laid off 1,900 people from the gaming company.
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March 14, 2024
Near Intelligence's Ch. 11 Plan Gets Court's Approval
A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Thursday confirmed consumer data platform Near Intelligence's Chapter 11 plan, which went through without objection after negotiations resolved outstanding concerns.
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March 14, 2024
Ex-Real Estate Exec Accused Of $77M WeWork Stock Fraud
Manhattan federal prosecutors announced Thursday that the former CEO of real estate investment firm ArciTerra was indicted, alleging he issued a bogus $77 million offer for WeWork shares in an ultimately failed attempt to cash in on call options after juicing the stock price.
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March 14, 2024
Food Delivery App Can't Beat Investor Suit Over SPAC Deal
A New York federal judge has trimmed a suit against Grab Holdings Ltd., a company that operates mobile food delivery and ride-hailing services, but retained allegations that several sections of a proxy statement Grab filed with a special-purpose acquisition company were false and misleading.
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March 14, 2024
Chancery Concedes Appraisal Math Error In HBK Share Award
Delaware's Court of Chancery has issued a rare post-merger appraisal ruling correction, adding $6.1 million to an earlier post-deal valuation of Pivotal Software Inc. shares held by two HBK Capital Management affiliates at the time of Pivotal's $2.7 billion sale to VMWare Inc. in 2019.
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March 14, 2024
Mnuchin Says He's Forming Investor Group To Buy TikTok
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he is forming an investor group to buy TikTok, one day after a measure to separate the social media platform from its Chinese owners passed the House.
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March 14, 2024
Deals Rumor Mill: Trump-Musk, Icahn-Illumina, Paramount
Donald Trump asked Elon Musk to buy Truth Social, Carl Icahn drops latest Illumina board Challenge but presses on with lawsuit, and PE firm Apollo is still eyeing Paramount. Here, Law360 breaks down the notable deal rumors from the past week.
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March 14, 2024
Chesapeake Investor Challenges $7.4B Southwestern Deal
A shareholder of Chesapeake Energy Corp. sued the company and some of its officers and directors on Wednesday in an attempt to enjoin a proposed $7.4 billion acquisition of Southwestern Energy, saying investors cannot make an informed decision on whether to approve the deal or not based on the incomplete financial information provided.
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March 14, 2024
KKR Lobs €2.8B Takeover Bid At German Energy Biz
Private equity giant KKR on Thursday lobbed a €2.8 billion ($3.05 billion) takeover bid at German renewable energy platform and independent power producer Encavis AG in a deal built by at least five firms that is aimed at strengthening Germany's energy future and supports the renewable energy transition in Europe.
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March 21, 2024
McDermott Hires Cooley M&A Specialist Michal Berkner
McDermott Will & Emery LLP has appointed deals specialist and Cooley LLP lawyer Michal Berkner as a partner in its transactions division, in a move to help it grow its mergers and acquisitions practice.
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March 14, 2024
Financier Denies Misusing Proceeds In Mike Ashley Dispute
Financier Amanda Staveley has denied misusing a £10 million ($12.8 million) loan provided by former Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley to pay a consultant, saying it was a legitimate brokerage payment to secure the takeover of the English football club.
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March 14, 2024
Weil, Memery Crystal Lead £28M Offer For SmartSpace
British software company SmartSpace said Thursday that visitor management systems maker Sign In Solutions Inc. has offered to buy it for approximately £28.4 million ($36.2 million) in a deal guided by Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP and Memery Crystal.
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March 14, 2024
Biden Comes Out Against $14.9B US Steel-Nippon Merger
President Joe Biden came out in opposition of U.S. Steel's planned $14.9 billion merger with Japan's Nippon Steel Corp. on Thursday, echoing lawmakers who have expressed concerns about the sale of an American institution to a foreign power.
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March 14, 2024
Jones Day, Cooley Steer AstraZeneca's $1B Bid For Amolyt
AstraZeneca said Thursday that it has agreed to acquire Amolyt Pharma, a clinical stage biotechnology company, in a deal worth up to $1.05 billion to expand its late-stage rare disease pipeline in an acquisition guided by Jones Day and Cooley LLP.
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March 14, 2024
UK Law Change Threatens PE Firm's Newspaper Group Bid
The government has set out rule changes that would prevent foreign states from owning British newspapers and other print media, a move that could block the takeover of The Daily Telegraph newspaper and The Spectator news magazine by RedBird IMI, an Abu Dhabi-backed private equity firm.
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March 13, 2024
Velodyne Investors Seek OK On $27.5M Deal Over CEO Ouster
Velodyne Lidar stockholders asked a California federal judge Wednesday to preliminarily approve a $27.5 million deal to resolve claims that the company failed to disclose adverse facts regarding the ouster of its founder and that it omitted from securities filings that it'd been investigating director misconduct that led stock prices to fall.
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March 13, 2024
BP, ADNOC Shelve $2B NewMed Deal Amid Gaza War
BP and the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. are suspending talks surrounding a $2 billion offer to acquire a controlling interest in Israel-based NewMed Energy, with the two oil giants citing "uncertainty created by the external environment" as the war in Gaza continues with no end in sight.
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March 13, 2024
Judge Says Air Purifier Co. Risks $13M Claim Without Counsel
A Florida bankruptcy judge on Wednesday told an Israel-based maker of air purification systems that it has three weeks to hire a new attorney and comply with discovery demands or its $12.8 million claim against the bankrupt Molekule Inc. will be stricken.
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March 13, 2024
FTC Bid To Block Kroger's $25B Albertsons Deal Set For Aug.
An Oregon federal court has scheduled an August hearing on the Federal Trade Commission's challenge of Kroger's planned $24.6 billion purchase of fellow grocery store giant Albertsons, a deal also under attack by state enforcers in Washington and Colorado.
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March 13, 2024
Atty Sanctioned Over Challenge To $60B Exxon-Pioneer Deal
A Texas judge has sanctioned a New York lawyer with a long history of filing frivolous lawsuits almost $60,000 for litigation brought over ExxonMobil's proposed $59.5 billion merger with Pioneer Natural Resources, the largest merger announced in 2023.
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March 13, 2024
KKR Leads $500M HarbourView Music-Backed Financing
HarbourView Equity Partners said Wednesday it has secured about $500 million in debt financing through a music asset-backed securitization led by KKR, which will be used to further expand HarbourView's music investment capabilities.
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March 13, 2024
BigLaw Paper Poacher Gets 15 Mos. In Merck Insider Case
A Manhattan federal judge hit a former FBI trainee from Pennsylvania with a 15-month prison sentence Wednesday for illegally trading on a Merck & Co. deal using secrets gleaned from legal papers in the possession of his BigLaw ex-girlfriend.
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March 13, 2024
Womble Bond Adds Parker Hudson Corporate Pros In Atlanta
Womble Bond Dickinson has strengthened its corporate capabilities by adding two former Parker Hudson Rainer & Dobbs LLP attorneys in Atlanta, including a former Womble Bond partner who is returning to the firm.
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March 13, 2024
North American Deal-Makers Bearish On 2024 M&A
A minority of deal-makers in North America expected increases in mergers and acquisitions activity moving into 2024, though their counterparts in Asia and the EMEA region were significantly more optimistic, a new report from software company SS&C Intralinks shows.
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March 13, 2024
House OKs TikTok Divestment Bill Despite Free Speech Worry
The House voted 352-65 on Wednesday to pass legislation that would require ByteDance Ltd. to divest TikTok or face a ban in the United States, in a vote that transcended party lines.
Expert Analysis
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'Entire Fairness' Takeaways From Tesla-SolarCity Ruling
In its recent decision affirming dismissal of stockholder claims against Elon Musk in connection with Tesla's $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity, the Delaware Supreme Court indicated how an entire fairness analysis is best presented, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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Tales From The Trenches Of Remote Depositions
As practitioners continue to conduct depositions remotely in the post-pandemic world, these virtual environments are rife with opportunities for improper behavior such as witness coaching, scripted testimony and a general lack of civility — but there are methods to prevent and combat these behaviors, say Jennifer Gibbs and Bennett Moss at Zelle.
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A Practical Solution To Life Sciences Joint Venture Disputes
In light of recent developments that threaten to increase friction between life sciences companies, industry participants should consider implementing dispute advisory boards as a method of resolving common joint venture hiccups without requiring litigation or mediation, says Scott Bass at Sidley.
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What's New In The DOJ-FTC Proposed Merger Guidelines
While this week's merger guidelines proposal from the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice initially appears to reflect well-established principles of antitrust law, a closer examination reveals a stark departure from the last 40 years of antitrust enforcement, say attorneys at Skadden.
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Vice Bankruptcy Ruling Shows Contract Assignment Issues
A New York bankruptcy court’s recent ruling in Vice Media’s Chapter 11 case is likely to have implications for other cases involving the assignment of contracts by corporate entities, and may signal that Showtime will still face an uphill battle in trying to prove that its contract constituted personal services, says Debra Dandeneau at Baker McKenzie.
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Ways To Balance ESG Initiatives And Antitrust Risks
Since ESG policies often concern systemic issues that require collective action for meaningful results, there are potential antitrust issues that require safeguards to help mitigate risk, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.
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OpenSea Verdict Backs DOJ Digital Asset Insider Trading View
The recent conviction of a former OpenSea manager in New York federal court confirms, for the first time, that the U.S. Department of Justice can prosecute insider trading activity involving digital assets under the traditional fraud statutes, irrespective of how an asset is legally classified, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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Level Up Lawyers' Business Development With Gamification
With employee engagement at a 10-year low in the U.S., there are several gamification techniques marketing and business development teams at law firms can use to make generating new clients and matters more appealing to lawyers, says Heather McCullough at Society 54.
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Mallory Ruling Leaves Personal Jurisdiction Deeply Unsettled
In Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway, a closely divided U.S. Supreme Court recently rolled back key aspects of its 2017 opinion in Daimler AG v. Bauman that limited personal jurisdiction, leaving as many questions for businesses as it answers, say John Cerreta and James Rotondo at Day Pitney.
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What Constitutes A Sale Of 'All' Company Assets In Del.
The recent ruling in Altieri v. Alexy by the Delaware Chancery Court is a useful reminder of the facts-intensive and nuanced nature of the judicial analysis as to what constitutes a sale of all or substantially all of a company's assets, and provides helpful guidance as to the factors the court views as most critical in making the determination, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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5 Ways Firms Can Rethink Office Design In A Hybrid World
As workplaces across the country adapt to flexible work, law firms must prioritize individuality, amenities and technology in office design, says Kristin Cerutti at Nelson Worldwide.
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How To Avoid Flopping When Flipping Fla. Real Estate
As land prices rise, Florida real estate developers are increasingly contracting to flip property to other purchasers for a profit, and they should carefully consider the unique risks and issues associated with the different forms that the process can take, says Gary Kaleita at Lowndes.
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Opinion
Congress Should Curb FTC Pattern Of Consent Order Abuse
In upcoming hearings, Congress should recognize that the Federal Trade Commission’s intrusive investigation of Twitter is part of a growing pattern of consent order abuse, which will continue to harm consumers, companies and the agency itself unless lawmakers step in, says former FTC chief technologist Neil Chilson, now at the Center for Growth and Opportunity.
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Opinion
Bar Score Is Best Hiring Metric Post-Affirmative Action
After the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling striking down affirmative action admissions policies, law firms looking to foster diversity in hiring should view an applicant's Multistate Bar Examination score as the best metric of legal ability — over law school name or GPA, says attorney Alice Griffin.
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Opinion
Antitrust Enforcers Must Have More Funding
Over four-plus decades, funding for enforcement of antitrust laws has fallen, and Congress must recognize that these years of consolidation have damaged the competitive vitality of the U.S. economy while rewarding the few at the expense of the many, says Barry Barnett at Susman Godfrey.