Mergers & Acquisitions

  • September 17, 2024

    Cooley Hires Team For Emerging Companies And VC Practice

    Cooley LLP said Tuesday that it has recruited the head of Taylor Wessing LLP's emerging companies and venture capital practice, one of three partner hires as it seeks to boost its transactional ability in London, part of a broader plan for growth in the English capital.

  • September 09, 2024

    Exec Denied New Trial In 'Shadow Trading' Case, Fined $321K

    A California federal judge on Monday denied a new trial request from an ex-Medivation Inc. executive found to have used the pharmaceutical company's inside information when he bought a rival's stock, and also ordered him to pay a $321,000 penalty in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's "shadow trading" case.

  • September 09, 2024

    SES, Intelsat Tell FCC They Need $3.1B Combo To Compete

    Satellite companies SES and Intelsat told the Federal Communications Commission they need regulators to approve their $3.1 billion merger, which was announced this spring, so they can better compete in a quickly advancing marketplace.

  • September 09, 2024

    Handbag Market Probed As FTC's $8.5B Merger Hearing Starts

    A New York federal judge heard dueling narratives about the existence of an "accessible luxury" handbag market Monday, as the Federal Trade Commission seeks to halt a proposed $8.5 billion merger between the owners of Michael Kors and Coach.

  • September 09, 2024

    7-Eleven Says No To Talks With Couche-Tard After $40B Denial

    After rejecting a nearly $40 billion buyout offer from Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. last week, the parent company of 7-Eleven told the Canadian retailer Monday that it hasn't yet brought forth an offer that warrants "substantial discussions." 

  • September 09, 2024

    Court Won't Nix Flyers' Case Over JetBlue-American Pact

    A New York federal court has refused to toss a proposed class action from airline passengers who allegedly overpaid for flights while an agreement was in place between JetBlue and American Airlines, an alliance the airlines dropped after a successful government challenge.

  • September 09, 2024

    DLA Piper, Kirkland Guide $875M Cloud Software Deal

    DLA Piper is representing artificial intelligence-powered infrastructure software company Progress on a new agreement to buy ShareFile, a business unit of Cloud Software Group Inc., for $875 million, with Kirkland & Ellis LLP advising the seller, Progress said in a Monday statement.

  • September 09, 2024

    Bradley Arant Adds Katten Partner In Dallas

    Bradley Arant has hired a six-and-a-half-year veteran of Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP who is joining the firm's corporate and securities practice in Dallas as a partner.

  • September 09, 2024

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Delaware's Court of Chancery made some expensive decisions last week, ranging from a $130 million stockholder award and a freeze on $450 million in equity financing to a whopping $1 billion bill for fraud and breach of contract damages. New cases aimed at Virgin Galactic, settlements pulled in Hemisphere Media Group Inc. and court hearings involving Apollo Global Management heated up. In case you missed it, here's the roundup of news from Delaware's Court of Chancery.

  • September 09, 2024

    Pa. Nursing Home Chain Gets OK For October Facility Auction

    A federal bankruptcy court has approved the sale of eight nursing homes in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia as part of their owners' Chapter 11 reorganization, according to court orders issued Friday and Monday.

  • September 09, 2024

    Hostmore Nixes £177M TGI Fridays Takeover

    British restaurant group Hostmore on Monday nixed its £177 million ($231.4 million per Monday's currency conversion) deal to buy the American-themed casual dining business TGI Fridays after the company lost control of many of its assets and revenue streams, which "potentially impairs the future revenue of the business."

  • September 09, 2024

    EU Should Loosen Merger Rules To Compete, Report Says

    The European Union should loosen its merger rules and reform trade policy and the energy market in order to boost EU competitiveness enough to catch up with the U.S. and China, a former European Central Bank president reported Monday.

  • September 09, 2024

    Squarespace Gets 'Best And Final' $7.2B Offer From Permira

    Squarespace Inc. said Monday that it has agreed to amend a previous take-private buyout agreement with Permira, bumping up the aggregate transaction value by $300 million to approximately $7.2 billion.

  • September 09, 2024

    Paul Hastings Lands King & Spalding M&A Atty In New York

    Paul Hastings LLP announced Monday that it has hired a public mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance lawyer from King & Spalding LLP as a partner in New York to strengthen its global M&A platform.

  • September 09, 2024

    A&O Shearman Guides OCI's $2.05B Methanol Biz Sale

    Dutch hydrogen producer OCI Global said Monday that it plans to sell an 85% holding in its global methanol business to Methanex Corp., a Canadian giant, for $2.05 billion, in a move to cut its debt and return cash to shareholders.

  • September 06, 2024

    Earthlink Investors Accept $85M Deal To End Merger Suit

    Earthlink investors who say they were duped into approving a $1.1 billion merger with failing telecommunications company Windstream Holdings Inc. told an Arkansas federal judge Friday that they've reached an $85 million deal to end the lawsuit two months before the case was scheduled to go to trial.

  • September 06, 2024

    AstraZeneca Unit Owes $130M In Chancery Scuttled-Drug Suit

    The Delaware Chancery Court awarded $130 million to former shareholders of biopharmaceutical company Syntimmune in their breach of contract fight against AstraZeneca PLC unit Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., finding that Alexion failed to make promised payments after it acquired Syntimmune in 2018 and breached key terms of their merger agreement.

  • September 06, 2024

    Ingersoll Rand Blocks Rival From Hiring Ex-Exec In NDA Fight

    A Colorado state court has preliminarily blocked the former chief executive of a company acquired by industrial products giant Ingersoll Rand Inc. from working for rival Avantor, finding Ingersoll Rand will likely win its claims that the executive specifically agreed not to work for Avantor as a condition of the acquisition.

  • September 06, 2024

    EU Antitrust Chief Charts Path Forward After Illumina Setback

    The European Union's top antitrust official said a recent ruling that found enforcers lacked authority to probe Illumina's $8 billion acquisition of Grail put an end to an important merger review tool and suggested legislation may be needed to plug the gap.

  • September 06, 2024

    Renewable Energy Biz Goes Public Via $386M SPAC Merger

    Renewable energy company EEW Renewables Ltd., advised by Seward & Kissel LLP, on Friday announced plans to go public by merging with Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP-led special purpose acquisition company Compass Digital Acquisition Corp. in a deal with a pro forma combined enterprise value of $386 million.

  • September 06, 2024

    Baker McKenzie M&A Partner Jumps To Bell Nunnally

    Dallas-based business law firm Bell Nunnally & Martin LLP has hired former Baker McKenzie partner Jonathan Farrokhnia, who told Law360 on Friday that his decision to join the firm was based on the advantages that come from working for a smaller firm.

  • September 06, 2024

    As Biden Looks To Block US Steel Deal, Rival Co. Weighs In

    Cleveland-Cliffs is lauding President Joe Biden's reported decision to block U.S. Steel's $14.9 billion planned merger with Nippon Steel and says it is ready to scoop up U.S. Steel's union assets, as the rival steelmaker weighed in on the matter following a flurry of quick developments this week indicating that the Nippon deal is all but dead.

  • September 06, 2024

    EU Gears Up For New Commission With A Plea: More Women

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is gearing up to distribute the top jobs in foreign trade, economics and antitrust among the new commissioners for their five-year mandate, but she is pressing countries in the bloc to nominate more female candidates.

  • September 06, 2024

    7-Eleven Parent Rejects Nearly $40B Buyout Offer

    The Tokyo-based parent company of convenience store chain 7-Eleven has turned down a nearly $40 billion nonbinding buyout offer from Couche-Tard, nudging the Canadian convenience store owner in a Friday letter to offer something better, and stating that the bid undervalues the business and fails to acknowledge regulatory concerns. 

  • September 06, 2024

    Taxation With Representation: Debevoise, Bennett, Orrick

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Verizon reaches a deal to absorb Frontier in a deal worth $20 billion, First Majestic agrees to buy Gatos Silver for $970 million, and Epam Systems inks a $630 million purchase of Neoris.

Expert Analysis

  • First-Of-Its-Kind Chancery Ruling Will Aid SPAC Defendants

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    The Delaware Chancery Court's first full dismissal of claims challenging a special purpose acquisition company transaction under the entire fairness doctrine in the recent Hennessy Capital Acquisition Stockholder Litigation establishes useful precedent to abate the flood of SPAC litigation, say Lisa Bugni and Benjamin Lee at King & Spalding.

  • How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts

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    As law firms increasingly rely on generative artificial intelligence tools to produce legal text, attorneys should be on guard for the overuse of cohesive devices in initial drafts, and consider a few editing pointers to clean up AI’s repetitive and choppy outputs, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.

  • Series

    Boxing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Boxing has influenced my legal work by enabling me to confidently hone the skills I've learned from the sport, like the ability to remain calm under pressure, evaluate an opponent's weaknesses and recognize when to seize an important opportunity, says Kirsten Soto at Clyde & Co.

  • Anticipating Disputes In Small Biz Partnerships And LLCs

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    In light of persistently high failures of small business partnerships and limited liability companies, mediator Frank Burke discusses proactive strategies for protecting and defining business rights and responsibilities, as well as reactive measures for owners.

  • Opinion

    Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision will shape the contours of industry self-regulation in the years to come, providing opportunities for this often-misunderstood practice, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.

  • 3 Ways Agencies Will Keep Making Law After Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court clearly thinks it has done something big in overturning the Chevron precedent that had given deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, but regulated parties have to consider how agencies retain significant power to shape the law and its meaning, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • Roundup

    After Chevron

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    In the month since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Chevron deference standard, this Expert Analysis series has featured attorneys discussing the potential impact across 26 different rulemaking and litigation areas.

  • Opinion

    Atty Well-Being Efforts Ignore Root Causes Of The Problem

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    The legal industry is engaged in a critical conversation about lawyers' mental health, but current attorney well-being programs primarily focus on helping lawyers cope with the stress of excessive workloads, instead of examining whether this work culture is even fundamentally compatible with lawyer well-being, says Jonathan Baum at Avenir Guild.

  • How Generative AI May Aid Merger Clearance Process

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    Generative artificial intelligence capable of analyzing and searching large datasets stands to revolutionize the merger clearance process, including by significantly reducing the time and effort required to respond to Hart-Scott-Rodino second requests, say Kenneth Koch and Brian Blush at BDO USA.

  • Antitrust In Retail: The Meaning Of 'Accessible Luxury'

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    In order for the Federal Trade Commission to block a deal that would put six "accessible luxury" brands, including Coach and Michael Kors, under one roof, the agency will need to prove that this category is distinct from the true luxury or mass-market categories, says David Kully at Holland & Knight.

  • A Case Study For Calif. Cities In Water Utility Takeovers

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    With growing water scarcity and drier weather looming, some local governments in California have sought to acquire investor-owned water utilities by eminent domain — but the 2016 case of Claremont v. Golden State Water is a reminder that such municipalization attempts must meet certain statutory requirements, say attorneys at Nossaman.

  • 4 Important Events In Bank Regulation: A Midyear Review

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    The first six months of 2024 have been fairly stable for the banking industry, though U.S. Supreme Court decisions and proposals from regulators have significantly affected the regulatory standards applicable to insured depository institutions, says Christina Grigorian at Katten.

  • Series

    Skiing And Surfing Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    The skills I’ve learned while riding waves in the ocean and slopes in the mountains have translated to my legal career — developing strong mentor relationships, remaining calm in difficult situations, and being prepared and able to move to a backup plan when needed, says Brian Claassen at Knobbe Martens.

  • Unpacking The Circuit Split Over A Federal Atty Fee Rule

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    Federal circuit courts that have addressed Rule 41(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are split as to whether attorney fees are included as part of the costs of a previously dismissed action, so practitioners aiming to recover or avoid fees should tailor arguments to the appropriate court, says Joseph Myles and Lionel Lavenue at Finnegan.

  • 6 Tips For Maximizing After-Tax Returns In Private M&A Deals

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    With potential tax legislation likely to spur a surge in private business sales, sellers can make the most of after-tax proceeds with strategies that include price allocation and qualified investment options, say Isaac Grossman and Daniel Studin at Morrison Cohen.

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