Global Payments To Acquire Worldpay In $24.3B Deal

By Al Barbarino

Global Payments Inc. unveiled plans Thursday to acquire payments giant Worldpay from GTCR and FIS for $24.25 billion, while divesting its issuer solutions business to FIS for $13.5 billion, in transactions that could reshape the global payments landscape.

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Sandberg Says FTC Market View Makes No Sense In Meta Case

By Bryan Koenig

Meta Platforms' former longtime board member and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg pushed back Thursday on crucial Federal Trade Commission arguments trying to shape the market the social media giant is accused of monopolizing, criticizing a friends and family definition the FTC is using to exclude TikTok as a competitor.

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7-Eleven Parent Floats Refreshed Board With 4 New Nominees

By Al Barbarino

Japan's Seven & i Holdings Co. on Thursday proposed a refreshed slate of directors and reaffirmed its commitment to pursuing both internal reforms and a potential acquisition by Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard.

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Deals Rumor Mill

OpenAI Eyes Windsurf, Activist Targets HP, And More Rumors

By Tom Zanki

OpenAI is preparing to bid about $3 billion to acquire coding developer Windsurf, activist fund Elliot Investment Management has purchased a major stake in Hewlett Packard with an eye toward pushing changes at the information technology giant, and private equity giant KKR is considering selling Atlantic Aviation for $10 billion.

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Strava To Acquire UK-Based Running Training App Runna

By Elaine Briseño

Privately held exercise app Strava announced Thursday that it will acquire United Kingdom-based Runna, a coaching platform for runners, but no financial details were included with the announcement.

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Hidden Road Nabs Broker-Dealer Approval After Ripple Deal

By Aislinn Keely

Prime brokerage platform Hidden Road announced Thursday that it's received a broker-dealer license from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, hot on the heels of a deal that will see Ripple Labs acquire the firm for $1.25 billion.

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Mubadala Joins $14.5B Education JV With $600M Investment

By Al Barbarino

Mubadala Investment Co. said Thursday it will acquire a minority stake in Nord Anglia Education for $600 million, joining an EQT-led consortium that purchased the international schools organization in a $14.5 billion deal that closed last month.

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Barclays To Offload Payments Business To Brookfield

By Najiyya Budaly

British lender Barclays Bank PLC said Thursday that it plans to sell most of its payments business to U.S. asset manager Brookfield in a move to realize the money it has invested in the subsidiary.

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QXO Prices $500M Offering Connected To $11B Beacon Buy

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Building products distribution company QXO Inc. announced the pricing of a stock offering, with plans to raise $500 million, which will be used to finance a portion of its pending $11 billion acquisition of Beacon Roofing Supply Inc.

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NC Hospital Operator Can't Escape AG's Merger Suit Yet

By Ryan Harroff

A North Carolina Business Court judge rejected HCA Healthcare's bid for a partial win in state Attorney General Jeff Jackson's compliance suit reviewing the company's 2019 purchase of another hospital system, ruling that the purchase agreement's language is too ambiguous to decide the matter without further discovery.

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SolarWinds Sued For Docs On $4.4B Take-Private Deal

By Jeff Montgomery

Citing company controller clout and alleged minority stockholder sidelining, a SolarWinds Corp. stock-owning trust has sued in Delaware's Court of Chancery for documents related to the company's $4.4 billion, $18.50-per-share take-public deal from Turn/River Capital LP.

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Keys To Regulatory Diligence In Life Sciences Transactions

Conducting effective regulatory due diligence for life sciences deals requires careful review of a target company's activities, and separate sets of considerations for commercial and pipeline products, says Anna Zhao at GunnerCooke.

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Tracking The Evolution In Litigation Finance

Despite continued innovation, litigation finance remains an immature market with borrowers recieving significantly different terms as lenders learn to value cases, which firms need a strong handle on to ensure lending terms do not overwhelm collateral value, says Robert Wilkins at Lightfoot Franklin.

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Series

Volunteer Firefighting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

While practicing corporate law and firefighting may appear incongruous, the latter benefits my legal career by reminding me of the importance of humility, perspective and education, says Nicholas Passaro at Ford.

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Solicitor General's Office Now Features Two Top Lieutenants

By Jeff Overley

Mere days after the U.S. Solicitor General's Office got a new leader, it also got a new leadership structure featuring two BigLaw alums in the traditional second-in-command post, according to a hearing list the U.S. Supreme Court released Thursday.

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Jenner & Block Fights DOJ Bid To Toss Exec Order Suit

By Ryan Boysen

Jenner & Block LLP on Thursday urged a D.C. federal court to reject the government's bid to dismiss its lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's executive order targeting the firm, saying the "legal profession as a whole is watching."

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4th Circ. Refuses To Halt Abrego Garcia Probe In Sharp Order

By Dorothy Atkins

A Fourth Circuit panel on Thursday rejected the Trump administration's "extraordinary" emergency motion to stay a discovery order in litigation over Kilmar Abrego Garcia's deportation to El Salvador, while cautioning the administration against ignoring federal courts, saying it could degrade both executive and judicial branch powers and that "law in time will sign its epitaph."

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K&L Gates Bungled Crypto Co.'s Bankruptcy Claim, Suit Says

By Aislinn Keely

Gryphon Digital Mining has sued its former counsel K&L Gates LLP, claiming it dropped the ball on a bankruptcy filing that cost the company millions of dollars and complicated another legal case, all while allegedly overbilling the crypto mining firm by $1 million for related matters.

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Akerman Sues To Block Malpractice Claim, Secure $750K Fees

By Jake Maher

Akerman LLP sued the healthcare services company Rennova Health Inc. and three medical laboratories in Florida state court this week, alleging that they owe the firm about $750,000 in unpaid fees and are now threatening to sue the firm for malpractice even though they have already released any claims.

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Calif. Judge To Resign Over Misconduct Amid Office Romance

By Jack Karp

A California state judge will resign and be barred from serving on the bench after engaging in misconduct that included pretending to be the lawyer for his judicial secretary with whom he was having an affair, according to a Thursday decision.

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LegalZoom Scores Arbitration In Unlawful Practice Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A suit accusing online legal services provider LegalZoom of engaging in the unauthorized practice of law will head to arbitration, after a New Jersey federal judge ruled the claims fall within the scope of an enforceable arbitration agreement.

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Judge Accused Of Sexting, Misusing Bench For Ex-Client

By Thy Vo

A Colorado state judge improperly used his position to help a former client with legal advice and exchanged sexually explicit texts with her while on the bench, according to a judicial disciplinary complaint that also alleged the judge failed to disclose their "prior sexting" when he later presided over her case.

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High Court Sets Arguments Over Birthright Pause

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ordered special oral arguments over President Donald Trump's bid to pause or limit three nationwide court orders prohibiting implementation of his executive order aimed at limiting birthright citizenship, keeping the president's mandate on hold until at least mid-May.

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Top Democrats Urge DOJ To Defend GAO's Legislative Status

By Courtney Bublé

Three top House Democrats are looking for assurances from the U.S. Department of Justice that it will "zealously defend" a government watchdog in upcoming litigation by a conservative legal organization that challenges its status in the government.

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Debt Firm's Successor, Ch. 11 Trustee End Latest Pay Dispute

By Daniel Connolly

A law firm that bought thousands of client files left over from the collapse of bankrupt California-based debt relief business Litigation Practice Group PC has agreed to pay nearly $1 million to the bankruptcy estate to help settle a payment dispute that began months ago.

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'Latter-Day Machiavelli' Defamed Calif. Law Firm, Court Told

By Rose Krebs

California employment law firm Lawyers for Justice PC has filed a suit in state court accusing one of its former clients of defamation in what the firm calls "a scorched-earth crusade against her former attorneys."

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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 the producers of West End show "Elf the Musical" face a contract dispute, Korean biotech company ToolGen Inc. bring a fresh patents claim against pharma giant Vertex, and ousted car tycoon Peter Waddell bring a claim against the private equity firm that backed his business. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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