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Mergers & Acquisitions
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October 15, 2024
Law Firms Diverge As Anti-ESG Pushback Continues
A continuing onslaught of legislation and litigation opposing corporate environmental, social and governance actions has created a fork in the road for law firms, with some choosing to scale back efforts and others pushing ahead with their internal ESG and diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
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October 15, 2024
The 2024 Law360 Pulse Social Impact Leaders
Check out our Social Impact Leaders ranking, analysis and interactive graphics to see which firms stand out for their engagement with social responsibility and commitment to pro bono service.
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October 15, 2024
Wheel Pros Gets OK For $1.4B Equity-Swap Ch. 11 Plan
A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved automotive wheel company Wheel Pros LLC's prepackaged Chapter 11 plan to swap $1.4 billion in senior secured debt for controlling equity in the company.
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October 15, 2024
FTC Wants More Info On $1.36B Home Healthcare Deal
The Federal Trade Commission has requested more information about healthcare solutions company Owens & Minor Inc.'s planned $1.36 billion purchase of home-based care business Rotech Healthcare Holdings Inc., extending the agency's merger review.
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October 15, 2024
True Value Hardware Hits Ch. 11 With $153M Asset Sale Plan
The 75-year-old hardware retailer True Value Co. LLC filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware bankruptcy court, with its plan to sell all assets to industry rival Do It Best Corp.
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October 15, 2024
Banknotes Maker Agrees To Sell Unit For £300M
Banknotes maker De La Rue said Tuesday that it has agreed to sell its authentication division and related entities to a U.S. company for £300 million ($390 million) in a deal steered by Bird & Bird, Slaughter and May and Freshfields.
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October 14, 2024
Permira Wraps $7.2B Deal For Squarespace Amid Litigation
Private equity firm Permira said Monday that it has successfully bought the outstanding stock of Squarespace Inc. in its proposed $7.2 billion deal to take the website builder private, amid ongoing shareholder litigation in the U.S. challenging the transaction.
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October 14, 2024
Baker McKenzie Leads Lundbeck's $2.6B Deal For US Pharma
Lundbeck said Monday that it has agreed to buy Longboard, a U.S. biopharmaceutical business, for $2.6 billion in cash as the Danish drug giant aims to capture a drug with "blockbuster potential" to treat a rare form of epilepsy.
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October 14, 2024
Pulp Giant Int'l Paper Shareholders Back £5.8B DS Smith Buy
International Paper Co. said Monday that its shareholders have "overwhelmingly" supported the planned £5.8 billion ($7.6 billion) all-share purchase of DS Smith PLC, its smaller U.K. rival, as the packaging giant eyes overseas expansion.
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October 11, 2024
IBM Unit Wants To Undo 'Troubling' Defamation Case Ruling
An IBM unit has asked the Fourth Circuit to revive its lawsuit alleging a former executive's defamatory statements nearly killed a major acquisition, arguing that a lower court attempted to inject a new standard into its analysis.
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October 11, 2024
New Squarespace Suit Filed For Take-Private Docs
A second shareholder of website builder Squarespace Inc. has sued in the Delaware Court of Chancery for books and records on the company's proposed $7.2 billion take-private deal with private equity giant Permira Advisors LLC, less than two weeks after the sidelining of an earlier books suit focusing on the same deal, which is set to expire late Oct. 11.
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October 11, 2024
M&A Dispute Triggers Could Shift Moving Into 2025
Legal disputes are a fact of life when it comes to mergers and acquisitions, but the deal provisions seen as the most likely to spur conflict have shifted since the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have subsided, according to attorneys surveyed in a new report from Berkeley Research Group.
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October 11, 2024
Fintech-Focused Cohen SPAC Leads 2 IPOs Worth $250M
Cohen Circle Acquisition Corp. I, a special purpose acquisition company founded by financial services industry veteran Betsy Cohen, began trading Friday, one of two SPACs that completed initial public offerings for a combined $250 million.
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October 11, 2024
FTC's Republicans Take Aim At Agency Merger Data
The Federal Trade Commission's two Republican members criticized a long-standing agency policy of reporting "abandoned" transactions that were never notified to the antitrust agencies as wins, while dissenting from an annual congressional report on merger reviews.
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October 11, 2024
Cable Co. CEO Says Buyer Fired Him In Violation Of Deal
An owner of a Colorado aerospace manufacturing company is suing a buyer in state court for allegedly violating the terms of their asset purchase deal, claiming the buyer fabricated a reason to fire him as CEO in order to avoid paying half a million dollars that it would otherwise owe to his company.
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October 11, 2024
Sports Biz Seeks To Freeze Assets In Suit Over NHL Deal
A Finland-based sports agency has asked a federal judge to enjoin a Massachusetts man from transferring or disposing of any assets while a lawsuit proceeds over a scheme he allegedly carried out to avoid paying roughly $1 million awarded to the company through arbitration.
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October 11, 2024
Cannabis Biz Ex-Partners Spar Over $6.4M Judgment Payout
Two former business partners are sparring in Colorado federal court over a proposed order to hold assets related to a cannabis company to satisfy a $6.4 million judgment and whether that order can be granted in compliance with the federal Controlled Substances Act.
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October 11, 2024
BurgerFi Creditors Blast DIP, Bidding Procedures In Ch. 11
Unsecured creditors of restaurant chain BurgerFi Inc. are challenging the terms of its post-bankruptcy financing package and some of the details of its planned asset sale, saying the provisions will unfairly leave creditors with little to nothing in recoveries.
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October 11, 2024
Kirkland, Skadden Compete Atop M&A Adviser League Tables
The two firms at opposite ends of the bargaining table on the largest merger announced this year — Mars' $36 billion agreement to purchase Kellanova — are also running neck-and-neck in the mergers and acquisitions league tables when measured by dollar volume, according to data provided by Dealogic.
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October 11, 2024
2 Finance Partners Added To Hunton's London Office
Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP has welcomed two new lawyers, Alan Cunningham and Richard Skipper, as finance partners in its London office.
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October 11, 2024
Taxation With Representation: Davis Polk, Latham, Kirkland
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Rio Tinto agrees to acquire Arcadium Lithium for roughly $6.7 billion, Ares Management Corp. and GCP International reach a $3.7 billion deal, and Butterfly Equity announces plans to buy The Duckhorn Portfolio for $2 billion.
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October 11, 2024
Nippon To Sell JV Stake For $1 In Push To Close US Steel Deal
Japan's Nippon Steel said Friday it has agreed to sell its stake in a 50-50 joint venture with ArcelorMittal to the European steelmaker for just $1, as Nippon seeks to address any antitrust concerns over its planned $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel.
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October 10, 2024
FTC's Final Merger Filings Overhaul Drops Labor Market Look
The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday finalized its long-awaited overhaul to U.S. merger filing rules, dropping initial proposed requirements to submit preliminary deal drafts and labor market details, while also reinstating the "early termination" of reviews of benign tie-ups.
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October 10, 2024
Chancery OKs $9.5M Deal For Katapult SPAC Challenge
A $9.5 million deal settled a Delaware Court of Chancery stockholder suit Thursday seeking damages arising from a stock slump following the $883 million blank check company deal that took subprime consumer lender Katapult Holdings Inc. public in June 2021.
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October 10, 2024
Yale Hospital Says Pension Liens Breach $435M Sale Deal
A hospital operator's purported $4 million pension liability has saddled its properties with liens that breach a $435 million sale contract, Yale New Haven Health told a Connecticut state judge Wednesday in a letter suggesting it may add claims to litigation over its deal with Prospect Medical Holdings Inc.
Expert Analysis
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Lead Like 'Ted Lasso' By Embracing Cognitive Diversity
The Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” aptly illustrates how embracing cognitive diversity can be a winning strategy for teams, providing a useful lesson for law firms, which can benefit significantly from fresh, diverse perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.
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Preparing For Increased Scrutiny Of Tech Supply Chains
The U.S. Department of Commerce's recent action prohibiting sales of a Russia-based technology company's products in the U.S. is the first determination under the information technology supply chain rule, and signals plans to increase enforcement of protections that target companies in designated foreign adversary jurisdictions, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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SVB Ch. 11 Shows Importance Of Filing Proof Of Claim Early
After a New York bankruptcy court’s recent ruling in SVB’s Chapter 11 case denied late claims filing requests related to post-bar date events, parties with potential claims against a debtor may need to seriously consider filing protective proofs of claim, says Kyle Arendsen at Squire Patton.
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Del. Dispatch: 27.6% Stockholder Not A Controller
The Delaware Court of Chancery's recent decision in Sciannella v. AstraZeneca — which found that the pharma giant, a 26.7% stockholder of Viela Bio Inc., was not a controller of Viela, despite having management control — shows that overall context matters when challenging transactions on breach of fiduciary duty grounds, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Of Healthcare's PE Boom
While an influx of capital may provide access to new resources and innovative technologies, the private equity model's method of funding may be fundamentally at odds with patient-first healthcare, and in recent years that inherent tension has gotten ugly, say Eva Gunasekera and Jaclyn Tayabji at Tycko & Zavareei.
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Opinion
A Way Forward For The US Steel-Nippon Deal And Union Jobs
Parties involved in Nippon Steel's acquisition of U.S. Steel should trust the Pennsylvania federal court overseeing a key environmental settlement to supervise a way of including future union jobs and cleaner air for the city of Pittsburgh as part of a transparent business marriage, says retired judge Susan Braden.
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Opinion
Now More Than Ever, Lawyers Must Exhibit Professionalism
As society becomes increasingly fractured and workplace incivility is on the rise, attorneys must champion professionalism and lead by example, demonstrating how lawyers can respectfully disagree without being disagreeable, says Edward Casmere at Norton Rose.
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A Look At State AGs Supermarket Antitrust Enforcement Push
The ongoing antitrust intervention by state attorneys general in the proposed Kroger and Albertsons merger suggests that states are straying from a Federal Trade Commission follow-on strategy in the supermarket space, which involved joining federal investigations or lawsuits and settling for the same divestment remedies, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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How To Survive Shareholder Activism
In an era where shareholder activism is on the rise, companies must identify weaknesses, clearly communicate strategies, update board composition and engage with shareholders consistently in order to avoid disruptive shareholder activism and safeguard the interests of both the company and its shareholders, say J.T. Ho at Orrick and Greg Taxin at Spotlight Advisors.
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'Outsourcing' Ruling, 5 Years On: A Warning, Not A Watershed
A New York federal court’s 2019 ruling in U.S. v. Connolly, holding that the government improperly outsourced an investigation to Deutsche Bank, has not undercut corporate cooperation incentives as feared — but companies should not completely ignore the lessons of the case, say Temidayo Aganga-Williams and Anna Nabutovsky at Selendy Gay.
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Series
Serving In The National Guard Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My ongoing military experience as a judge advocate general in the National Guard has shaped me as a person and a lawyer, teaching me the importance of embracing confidence, balance and teamwork in both my Army and civilian roles, says Danielle Aymond at Baker Donelson.
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Big Business May Come To Rue The Post-Administrative State
Many have framed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions overturning Chevron deference and extending the window to challenge regulations as big wins for big business, but sand in the gears of agency rulemaking may be a double-edged sword, creating prolonged uncertainty that impedes businesses’ ability to plan for the future, says Todd Baker at Columbia University.
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Equity Rights Offering Considerations As Maturity Cliff Looms
Current market uncertainties make an equity rights offering — involving affiliate backstop investors — a cost-effective, capital-raising transaction for distressed companies looking to manage their leverage ahead of the impending maturity of a substantial number of COVID-era debt issuances, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.
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A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates
Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.
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Mitigating Risks Amid 10-Year Sanctions Enforcement Window
In response to recent legislation, which doubles the statute of limitations for actions related to certain U.S. sanctions and provides regulators greater opportunity to investigate possible violations, companies should take specific steps to account for the increased civil and criminal enforcement risk, say attorneys at Freshfields.