Nexstar-Tegna Deal Blocked Amid DirecTV, AGs' Challenge

By Hailey Konnath

A California federal judge on Friday issued a preliminary injunction barring, for now, the $6.2 billion merger of broadcast giants Nexstar and Tegna, ruling that state attorneys general and DirecTV are likely to prevail in proving that the deal is anticompetitive and will harm consumers as well as distributors.

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French Telecoms Giants In Talks To Buy SFR For €20.4B

By Najiyya Budaly

French telecoms groups Bouygues Telecom, Orange and Iliad said Friday that they have entered into exclusive talks to buy SFR from Altice Group for €20.35 billion ($24 billion) in a move that would help to consolidate the sector in Europe.

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CMA Seeks Views On $25B Paints, Coatings Tie-Up

By Tom Fish

The Competition and Markets Authority has invited public comment on the proposed merger between Dulux paint-maker AkzoNobel NV and Axalta Coating Systems Ltd., marking an initial step in its review of the deal.

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4 Firms Lead Kraken's $550M Buy Of Crypto Derivatives Biz

By Aislinn Keely

Four firms including Haynes Boone and Jones Day guided Kraken's $550 million acquisition of regulated crypto derivatives exchange Bitnomial, according to a Friday announcement from Kraken.

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Macquarie Selling Romanian Grid Network For About $825M

By Al Barbarino

Premier Energy Group said Friday it has agreed to acquire Romania-based electricity distributor Distributie Energie Oltenia, or DEO, from funds managed by Australia's Macquarie Asset Management for about €700 million ($825 million).

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American Airlines Shuts Down United Merger Rumors

By Linda Chiem

American Airlines on Friday shut down speculation of a potential combination with United Airlines, saying it's not currently engaged in any merger talks with the Chicago-based carrier.

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Analysis

DOJ's NFL Probe May Reshape Sports Broadcasting Law

By David Steele

Though antitrust charges are in play in the U.S. Department of Justice's investigation into the NFL's deals with services like Amazon Prime and Netflix, experts say they don't see a strong federal case against the league's broadcasting practices, as focus may shift to updating a decades-old law governing how sports leagues negotiate television deals.

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Polygon Says Ex-Execs Engaged In Self-Dealing

By Katryna Perera

Two former executives of artificial intelligence company Predicate Labs Inc. have been hit with a suit in Delaware Chancery Court alleging that following a $400 million acquisition of the company in 2021, the executives "began a campaign of self-dealings, intentional misrepresentation, deceptive inducement and willful breach."

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Sumitomo's $4.5B Tri Pointe Deal Clears Antitrust Review

By Isaac Monterose

Japanese logging company Sumitomo Forestry Co.'s $4.5 billion all-cash acquisition of U.S. homebuilder Tri Pointe Homes has met an antitrust review requirement for closing the merger, Tri Pointe said in a securities filing.

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NorthStar Inks $300M SPAC Deal As Space Debris Risk Rises

By Al Barbarino

NorthStar Earth & Space said Friday it will merge with a blank-check company in a deal valuing NorthStar at $300 million, as the Canadian company bets that increasingly congested orbits will require continuous monitoring to avoid collisions and service disruptions.

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Uber To Buy Delivery Hero Stake From Prosus For €270M

By Dawood Fakhir

Prosus said Friday that it has agreed to sell a stake in Delivery Hero to Uber for approximately €270 million ($319 million) to satisfy a regulatory condition to complete its €4.1 billion acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway.com.

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Roundup

Taxation With Representation: Skadden, Stikeman Elliott

By Zak Kostro

In this week's Taxation With Representation, Amazon.com Inc. buys satellite communications company Globalstar Inc., waste management company GFL Environmental Inc. acquires Secure Waste Infrastructure Corp., and Standard Life PLC buys the British subsidiary of Dutch insurer Aegon.

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Alaska-Hawaiian Merger Judge Mulls DQ Over O'Melveny Ties

By Craig Clough

The parties in a consumer lawsuit challenging Alaska Airlines' 2024 acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines have been notified that the federal judge recently assigned to the case intends to disqualify himself unless they sign a waiver over one of his retirement accounts being tied to O'Melveny & Myers LLP, which is representing Alaska Airlines.

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Fintech Founder Can't Stay SEC Fraud Case Amid Countersuit

By Emilie Ruscoe

A fintech founder can't hit pause on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims he defrauded investors in a special purpose acquisition company as another court weighs whether to toss his claims that the regulator sued him improperly during last year's government shutdown.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen Aston Martin file an appeal in a row with Chinese carmaker Geely over its winged logo for London black cabs, Ineos sue Ben Ainslie's America's Cup team for a £180 million ($244 million) boat, White & Case face a claim from two energy storage companies, and a golf tour company bring a claim against Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund after the fund invested in its rival.

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Reed Smith Lands McDermott Fund Finance Pro In Miami

By Rose Krebs

Reed Smith LLP has added a partner in Miami from McDermott Will & Schulte LLP to bolster its capacity to advise clients about fund finance and private capital matters.

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Employer Considerations After FTC's Noncompete Warning

In light of Federal Trade Commission leadership's recent message that the agency remains committed to challenging noncompetes that operate as restraints of trade, employers should take several practical steps in order to reduce regulatory risk, including auditing existing agreements and narrowing restrictions, says Christopher Pickett at UB Greensfelder.

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2 Discovery Rulings Break With Heppner On AI Privilege Issue

While a New York federal court’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner suggests that some litigants’ communications with AI tools are discoverable, two other recent federal court decisions demonstrate that such interactions generally qualify for work-product protection under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, says Joshua Dunn at Brown Rudnick.

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Black McDermott Atty Says White Men Favored For Partner

By Lauren Berg

A Black female McDermott Will & Schulte attorney accused the firm of gender, race and pregnancy discrimination in a lawsuit lodged in California state court, saying she has been consistently bypassed for promotion by less-experienced white attorneys and was yanked off casework after taking medical leave following a life-threatening illness during pregnancy.

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'Kind Of Lawyering We Don't Like': Judge Rips Quinn Emanuel

By Bonnie Eslinger

Guardant Health Inc. urged a California federal judge on Monday to make Quinn Emanuel pay nearly $1.3 million on top of $3 million in sanctions already imposed over misrepresentations lawyers made representing its rival Natera Inc., prompting the judge to criticize Quinn Emanuel lawyers for making distinctions so fine they veer into misrepresentation.

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Q&A

She Has A Point: Fish & Richardson's Nitika Gupta Fiorella

By Dani Kass

Fish & Richardson PC principal Nitika Gupta Fiorella is "a no-stone-unturned, always super prepared" lawyer who "epitomizes professionalism and respect," according to Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP partner Cora Holt.

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Fox Lawyer In Dominion Case Confirmed To Texas Bench

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 47-46 Monday evening to confirm Andrew Davis, a partner at Lehotsky Keller Cohn LLP who defended Fox News in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case, to serve on the bench in the Western District of Texas.

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Justices Won't Consider IP Theft Allegations Against Akin

By Dani Kass

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a former Cornell University graduate student's petition trying to revive his malpractice suit against Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP stemming from patent litigation against Illumina Inc. over DNA sequencing intellectual property.

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DC Ethics Office Says Ex-Interim US Atty Can't Remove Case

By Emily Sawicki

Washington, D.C., ethics officials have asked a federal court to send U.S. Department of Justice official Ed Martin's ethics case back to the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility, arguing the D.C. federal court lacks jurisdiction over a disciplinary matter, which is neither a civil action nor a criminal prosecution.

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Ex-Newman Clerks, Judges Back High Court Suspension Fight

By Adam Lidgett

A group of former clerks for Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman, as well as former federal judges, have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the challenge to her suspension imposed by her colleagues.

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Insurer Intentionally Avoiding $200M Loan Claim, Court Told

By Hope Patti

A litigation funding firm has accused its insurer of wrongfully refusing to pay out its policy's guaranteed $200 million in coverage for an unpaid loan, saying the insurer buried it in duplicative and burdensome information requests to avoid paying a valid claim.

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Judge Says Ill. Justices Can't Fire Him Over MAGA Op-Ed

By Jack Karp

Illinois Supreme Court justices have no authority to remove a state judge from the bench for alleged misconduct, so their effort to dismiss a retired state trial judge's claims that his removal for penning a political opinion column violated his constitutional rights should be rejected, the retired jurist has said.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week delivered another mix of procedural rulings, fiduciary duty disputes and deal litigation, highlighting both the court's gatekeeping role and its continued focus on stockholder rights and transactional fairness.

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