Private Equity

  • February 11, 2025

    Activist Elliott Targets Phillips 66 Again Over Lack Of Progress

    Activist investor Elliott Investment Management LP on Tuesday sent a letter to the board of directors of energy conglomerate Phillips 66 calling for "urgent changes" to improve operating performance and regain shareholder trust, saying "another year of empty rhetoric and broken promises is unacceptable."

  • February 11, 2025

    Investor Oaktree Closes $16B Distressed Debt Fund

    Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Management on Tuesday said it had closed a $16 billion distressed-debt fund aimed at providing capital to companies in a variety of industries, with Kirkland & Ellis advising. 

  • February 11, 2025

    Private Equity Group Of The Year: Latham

    Latham & Watkins LLP's private equity attorneys had a banner year handling significant deals, such as SRS Distribution's $18.25 billion sale to Home Depot and advising Silver Lake in a $9.2 billion equity investment in Vantage Data Centers, making it one of the 2024 Law360 Private Equity Groups of the Year.

  • February 11, 2025

    Novartis To Buy US Pharma Biz Anthos For Up To $3.1B

    Novartis AG said Tuesday that it plans to buy Anthos Therapeutics Inc. for up to $3.1 billion, allowing the Swiss pharmaceutical heavyweight to return a drug that originated at the company back into its portfolio of cardiovascular therapies.

  • February 10, 2025

    NY Funds Say Paramount 'Bound' To Mull $13.5B Sale Option

    Five big New York public pension funds argued in a newly unsealed Delaware court filing on Monday that a Paramount special committee breached its fiduciary duties by neglecting a $13.5 billion company sale offer and called for a Court of Chancery order compelling evaluation of the deal.

  • February 10, 2025

    Elon Musk-Led Group Makes $97.4B OpenAI Takeover Bid

    A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk said Monday it has offered to pay $97.375 billion to buy artifical intelligence platform OpenAI, drawing a quick and snarky rejection from Sam Altman, who co-founded the platform with Musk. 

  • February 10, 2025

    Conn. Judge Flags 'Extraordinary' Error In $10.4M Fraud Suit

    A Connecticut appellate judge expressed surprise Monday that for more than five years, two teams of seasoned litigators failed to notice an error on the docket of a securities fraud lawsuit before the mistake led to a judge — and not a jury — hearing the case and issuing a $10.4 million award to investment banking firm FIH LLC.

  • February 10, 2025

    Lexitas Selling Registered Agent Unit To Dutch Co. For $415M

    Austin, Texas-based legal services provider Lexitas said Monday that it has agreed to sell its Registered Agent Solutions Inc. unit to Dutch information services company Wolters Kluwer Financial & Corporate Compliance for approximately $415 million in cash.

  • February 10, 2025

    Private Equity Group Of The Year: Simpson Thacher

    Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP advised on private equity firm Silver Lake's $13 billion take-private sale of sports and entertainment conglomerate Endeavor Group Holdings Inc., the largest deal of its kind in the entertainment sector, landing it a spot among the 2024 Law360 Private Equity Groups of the Year.

  • February 10, 2025

    Investor Urges US Steel To Dump Deal After Trump Comments

    Activist investor Ancora Holdings Group on Monday urged U.S. Steel to abandon its proposed $14.9 billion merger with Japan's Nippon Steel, stating that the deal has "no chance of being resurrected" in light of statements made by President Donald Trump on Friday.

  • February 10, 2025

    Sidley Adds White & Case Energy Ace In Houston

    Sidley Austin LLP announced Monday that a former White & Case LLP attorney has joined the firm in Houston, expanding the firm's reach with leading energy companies and private equity funds.

  • February 10, 2025

    Orrick Lands 13-Atty VC Team From Gunderson Dettmer In LA

    Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announced Monday that it has hired a 13-attorney team from Gunderson Dettmer, including the co-founders of its Los Angeles office, to bolster its tech company and venture capital services.

  • February 10, 2025

    Pillsbury Recruits Former Mayer Brown Tax Pro In NY

    Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP said it has recruited a former Mayer Brown LLP tax expert to serve as a partner in Pillsbury's New York office.

  • February 10, 2025

    Emerson Butts Heads With Elliott On $7.2B AspenTech Deal

    Global technology company Emerson said Monday that its $7.2 billion offer to buy the remaining shares in AspenTech that it does not already own represents "compelling and certain value" for shareholders, pushing back after activist investment firm Elliott ripped the bid as an undervaluation.

  • February 07, 2025

    Chancery Tosses $3.4B Hertz Stock Warrant Redemption Suit

    Delaware's Court of Chancery dismissed a suit Friday filed by two Hertz institutional investors accusing the company of relying on an impermissible reinterpretation of a warrant agreement to reject a redemption demand purportedly triggered by the company's post-Chapter 11 recapitalization, finding the plaintiffs' interpretation of the agreement leads to "absurd results."

  • February 07, 2025

    NJ Statehouse Catch-Up: Offshore Wind, AI, Neurodiversity

    The retraction of New Jersey's fourth offshore wind solicitation came alongside a wave of legislative and regulatory activity that also proposed workplace rules to bolster inclusivity and a new compensation path for assault victims

  • February 07, 2025

    SPAC Market Hums Again Following Multiyear Downturn

    Special purpose acquisition companies are once again asserting their presence in the capital markets and M&A landscape, forming new vehicles at the highest pace in three years — albeit in leaner form than in the last cycle, when many deals ended in busts.

  • February 07, 2025

    SolarWinds Accepts $4.4B Sale To PE Firm Turn/River Capital

    SolarWinds said Friday it has agreed to be sold to Turn/River Capital for $4.4 billion, marking a notable turnaround for a company that came back from a consequential 2020 data breach to become what its CEO told Law360 is now "one of the most secure software companies."

  • February 07, 2025

    Del.'s Quiet Ambition To Tweak Chancery, Stem Feared DExit

    Anxious over claims that stockholder-tilted decisions by Delaware's Court of Chancery will trigger more companies to follow Tesla, SpaceX, Meta and Dropbox to other states, Delaware policymakers are taking a hard look at the venerable business court's processes, hoping to slow a feared rush to DExit.

  • February 07, 2025

    Texas Judge Ends Fund's SEC Suit Over 'Fishing Expedition'

    A North Texas judge has tossed a South Carolina private equity fund's lawsuit accusing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of an unconstitutional "fishing expedition" investigation, hours after the fund accused the commission of trying to gut it through a Florida lawsuit.

  • February 07, 2025

    Activist Elliott Takes Aim At $7.2B AspenTech-Emerson Deal

    Activist investment firm Elliott Investment Management said Friday it has amassed a more than $1.5 billion stake in Aspen Technology, stating that AspenTech's plan to sell off its remaining shares for $7.2 billion to global technology company Emerson undervalues the business.

  • February 07, 2025

    Private Equity Group Of The Year: Cravath

    Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP's recent work advising on a number of significant mergers and acquisitions, including representing Amentum in its reverse Morris trust merger with two Jacobs subsidiaries, has scored the firm a spot among the 2024 Law360 Private Equity Groups of the Year.

  • February 07, 2025

    Taxation With Representation: Kirkland, Latham, Skadden

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Triumph Group goes private via Berkshire Partners and Warburg Pincus affiliates, alternative asset manager TPG buys Altus Power, Globus Medical buys Nevro Corp., and Honeywell separates its automation and aerospace technology businesses, resulting in the formation of three distinct companies.

  • February 07, 2025

    3 Firms Guide Bain On $3.4B Japanese Pharma Co. Buy

    Bain Capital said Friday it has agreed to acquire Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. from Mitsubishi Chemical Group Corp., in a carveout transaction that values the target at approximately JPY 510 billion, or about $3.36 billion.

  • February 07, 2025

    3 Firms Build HIG's CA$1.3B Take-Private Of Converge

    Converge Technology Solutions Corp. on Friday announced that it has agreed to go private and be bought by private equity shop H.I.G. Capital in a deal that has an enterprise value of CA$1.3 billion ($909.6 million) and was built by three law firms.

Expert Analysis

  • In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State

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    On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.

  • 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.

  • Supreme Court's ALJ Ruling Carries Implications Beyond SEC

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    In its recent Jarkesy opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the types of cases that can be tried before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's in-house administrative law judges, setting the stage for challenges to the constitutionality of ALJs across other agencies, say Robert Robertson and Kimberley Church at Dechert.

  • 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.

  • 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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    Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Chevron deference standard in June, this Expert Analysis series has featured attorneys discussing the potential impact across 37 different rulemaking and litigation areas.

  • Navigating Scrutiny Of Friendly Professional Corps. In Calif.

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    In light of ongoing scrutiny and challenges to private equity participation in the California healthcare marketplace, particularly surrounding the use of the friendly professional corporation model, management services organizations should consider implementing four best practices, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • 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.

  • Proposed Customer ID Rule Could Cost Investment Advisers

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    A rule recently proposed by FinCEN and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to make financial advisers collect more customer information parallels an anti-money laundering and counterterrorism rule proposed this spring, but firms may face new compliance costs when implementing these screening programs, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • What 2 Rulings On Standing Mean For DEI Litigation

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    Recent federal court decisions in the Fearless Fund and Hello Alice cases shed new light on the ongoing wave of challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, with opposite conclusions on whether the plaintiffs had standing to sue, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • 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.

  • Arbitration Implications Of High Court Coinbase Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent Coinbase v. Suski ruling not only reaffirmed the long-standing principle that arbitration is a matter of contract, but also established new and more general principles concerning the courts' jurisdiction to decide challenges to delegation clauses and the severability rule, say Tamar Meshel at the University of Alberta.

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