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Mergers & Acquisitions
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April 04, 2024
Insurer Resolution Life To Buy New Zealand Biz For $247M
Resolution Life said on Thursday that its Australasian arm has agreed to buy Asteron Life, an insurer based in New Zealand, for 410 million New Zealand dollars ($247 million), as the global group eyes entry into the country's growing insurance sector.
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April 04, 2024
Mondi £5.1B Offer Deadline For DS Smith Extended
Packaging business DS Smith said Thursday that its rival Mondi PLC has been granted extra time to make a £5.1 billion ($6.5 billion) all-share offer as a bidding war for DS with International Paper Co. continues.
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April 04, 2024
UK Deepens Probe Into Vodafone-Three Telecoms Merger
Britain's antitrust authority said Thursday that it has launched an in-depth probe into plans by Vodafone and Three to merge their U.K. telecommunications networks to create a £16.5 billion ($21 billion) mobile operator after the companies failed to alleviate competition concerns.
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April 03, 2024
Antitrust Suits Remain Low Despite Slight 2023 Spike
Federal enforcers and private plaintiffs filed more new antitrust cases last year than the year before but the slight uptick still kept 2023 as the second lowest in a decade, according to a new Lex Machina report.
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April 03, 2024
Accused 'Shadow Trader' Takes Stand To Slam SEC's Case
A former Medivation executive accused of "shadow trading" when he purchased stock in rival Incyte testified in his California federal civil trial Wednesday that he didn't base that decision on confidential information, and he didn't think even "for one second" that he was violating securities laws.
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April 03, 2024
Israel-Hamas War No Excuse To Skip Discovery: Ch. 11 Judge
A Florida bankruptcy judge on Wednesday penalized an Israeli creditor pursuing a roughly $13 million Chapter 11 claim against a California-based air purifier maker, finding the conflict between Israel and Hamas is not a valid excuse for repeatedly missing discovery deadlines.
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April 03, 2024
Hawaii Bio Power Co. Can't Add Merger-Based Antitrust Claims
A Hawaii federal magistrate judge has refused to permit the addition of new allegations, based on a 2017 fossil fuel plant acquisition, to a recently restarted lawsuit accusing the state's largest power company of anticompetitively canceling a contract for a new biomass energy plant.
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April 03, 2024
AT&T Faces Investor Suit Over $43B WarnerMedia Spinoff
A Warner Bros. Discovery shareholder accused AT&T and its CEO John Stankey of hiding how serious the company's problems were as it spun off its $43 billion WarnerMedia unit, alleging that caused Discovery to pay far too much when it merged with its fellow news and entertainment giant.
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April 03, 2024
NC AG Greenlights New Monitor For HCA Hospital Amid Probe
A new organization has taken up the baton to monitor whether HCA Healthcare is in compliance with the agreement that cemented its $1.5 billion acquisition of a North Carolina health system, a pact that is the focus of ongoing litigation between HCA and the state's attorney general.
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April 03, 2024
FIS Didn't Lie To Itself About Short-Lived Merger, Execs Say
Fidelity National's top brass recently urged a Florida federal court to toss an investor's lawsuit over a $46 billion market cap drop resulting from spinning off a payment business it had acquired a few years prior, arguing the company can't "be deceived by its own statements," which a pension fund alleged artificially inflated share prices.
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April 03, 2024
Investors Want $1.5B Penalty Awarded After PE Buyout
A group of investors is seeking to enforce a $1.5 billion judgment stemming from a 2005 private equity acquisition of Greece-based Tim Hellas Telecommunications SA that it claims ultimately enriched PE firms TPG Inc. and Apax Partners LLP to the detriment of other investors.
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April 03, 2024
Genmab Builds Oncology Portfolio With $1.8B Deal
Danish biotechnology company Genmab announced Wednesday that it would acquire private cancer drugmaker ProfoundBio for $1.8 billion in cash, a move set to beef up Genmab's oncology portfolio and position the company as a competitor to other biotech companies that have made similar deals in the antibody drug conjugate space in recent months.
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April 03, 2024
OpenText Belongs In Merger Suit Coverage Row, Insurer Says
OpenText belongs in a dispute over coverage for a class action alleging Covisint's shareholders got a bad deal when it merged with OpenText in 2017, Covisint's insurer told a Michigan federal judge, arguing OpenText has a vested interest because it may have indemnification obligations if no coverage exists.
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April 03, 2024
Top 10 Deals Of Q1 Led By GE Energy Spinoff, Capital One
It may be wishful thinking to imagine that earlier hopes for a major rebound in 2024 mergers and acquisitions activity will pan out, but by many indications the year was at least off to a better start than 2023.
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April 03, 2024
Blue Owl Buying Kuvare Asset Management For Up To $1B
Alternative asset manager Blue Owl Capital Inc., advised by Kirkland & Ellis LLP, on Wednesday unveiled plans to buy Sidley Austin LLP-led Kuvare Asset Management for up to $1 billion in a cash-and-stock transaction.
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April 03, 2024
Disney Thwarts Trian Revolt, Retaining All 12 Board Members
Walt Disney Co. shareholders reelected the entertainment company's 12 current board members at a shareholder meeting Wednesday afternoon, rejecting all nominees pushed by activist investors Trian Fund Management and Blackwells Capital.
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April 03, 2024
Truth Social Investors Cop To Fraud In $23M Insider Case
Two Florida venture capitalists on Wednesday admitted to insider trading on confidential plans to take former President Donald Trump's media company public, after prosecutors charged that the Truth Social fraud netted them and a third defendant $23 million.
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April 03, 2024
Casa Systems Files For Ch. 11 With $316M Debt, Plans Sale
Communications equipment company Casa Systems Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware, with plans to sell its 5G mobile core and RAN business to software company Lumine Group.
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April 03, 2024
UK Vehicle Testing Co. Buys US Rival For Up To $30M
AB Dynamics PLC, a specialist in testing transportation products and services, said on Wednesday it has bought Venshure Test Services LLC for up to $30 million, as it seeks to expand its electric vehicle battery expertise.
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April 02, 2024
Ex-Autonomy Exec Denies He Blew Whistle To Deflect Scandal
Autonomy's former U.S. chief financial officer denied under cross-examination Tuesday in the California criminal fraud trial of ex-CEO Michael Lynch that he brought whistleblower concerns about alleged accounting irregularities to the software company's Deloitte auditors to "cover" himself after a payroll scandal emerged in his department.
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April 02, 2024
Jon Stewart Reveals Apple's Heavy Hand In Lina Khan Chat
Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan appeared on "The Daily Show" on Monday night for a wide-ranging conversation in which host Jon Stewart revealed that Apple wouldn't allow him to speak with her on a podcast related to his Apple TV+ show.
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April 02, 2024
Bally's Investor Says Takeover Bid Exploiting Weakness Of Biz
Bally's Corp. investor K&F Growth Capital has urged the board of directors for the casino operator to reject a $15-per-share takeover bid from its largest shareholder, Standard General, asserting the offer from the investment firm "woefully" undervalues the business.
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April 02, 2024
Theseus Investor Seeks Appraisal After Concentra Merger
A fund invested in clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Theseus Pharmaceuticals Inc. has petitioned Delaware's Court of Chancery for an appraisal of the investor's 250,000 shares following Theseus' $4.05 per-share consolidation in February with Concentra Biosciences LLC.
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April 02, 2024
Axle Maker Says It's Getting Shafted On Exclusive Parts Deal
A Colorado maker of electrically powered axle components says a Michigan heavy-vehicle company broke their exclusivity agreement and is trying to replace the manufacturer with a competitor, according to a complaint removed to Colorado federal court Monday.
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April 02, 2024
Arena Group Shareholders Sue Former CEO In Delaware
Shareholders of the Arena Group — the digital publisher behind Sports Illustrated, TheStreet, Men's Journal and other brands — have sued the group's former CEO in Delaware's Court of Chancery, alleging wrongdoings ranging from fraud to gross negligence and demanding more than $10 million in compensatory damages.
Expert Analysis
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Time To Step Up PFAS Due Diligence In Cross-Border M&A
Regulations in the U.S. and EU governing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances will likely evolve to become global standards out of necessity and scale, so PFAS due diligence — particularly for buyers, sellers, and lenders and investors involved in multijurisdictional mergers and acquisitions — will be essential in 2024, say attorneys at Shipman & Goodwin.
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What Can Be Learned From Adobe-Figma Merger Termination
The Competition and Markets Authority’s role in the recent termination of the proposed Adobe-Figma merger deal indicates the regulator's intention to be seen as a strong enforcer in the technology sphere, and serves as a warning for companies to address antitrust risks early on in the merger process, say Deirdre Taylor and Molly Heslop at Gibson Dunn.
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Wachtell-X Ruling Highlights Trend On Arbitrability Question
A growing body of case law, including a California state court's recent decision in X Corp. v. Wachtell, holds that incorporation of specific arbitral body rules in an arbitration provision may in and of itself constitute clear and unmistakable evidence of delegation of arbitrability to an arbitrator, and thus such clauses should be drafted carefully, say attorneys at Norton Rose.
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7 E-Discovery Predictions For 2024 And Beyond
The legal and technical issues of e-discovery now affect virtually every lawsuit, and in the year to come, practitioners can expect practices and policies to evolve in a number of ways, from the expanded use of relevancy redactions to mandated information security provisions in protective orders, say attorneys at Littler.
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Consider A Key Insurance Tool For Environmental M&A Deals
Transactional liability insurance can be a useful risk allocation tool for completing mergers and acquisitions in the renewable energy and climate and clean technology sectors, though policies must be structured carefully to achieve maximum coverage, say Joseph Castelluccio and Paul de Bernier at Mayer Brown.
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2 FCPA Settlements Illuminate Self-Disclosure, Disgorgement
Two of last year’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act settlements — with biomedical company Lifecore and mining company Corsa Coal — suggest that the government will be much more flexible in negotiating disgorgement amounts if an entity voluntarily self-discloses misconduct, say Michael Gilbert and Lucas Amodio at Sheppard Mullin.
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Opinion
Conflicts Abound When Activist Short-Sellers Publish Reports
The self-serving relationship between activist short-sellers and plaintiff-side litigators is conflict-ridden and hinders the fact finder's impartiality when a short report forms the basis for lead plaintiffs' allegations, say Nessim Mezrahi and Stephen Sigrist at SAR.
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Financing Healthcare Deals In Uncertain Markets This Year
As challenges to closing and financing new deals prevail into 2024, lenders in new healthcare transactions are talking about alternative approaches for sponsors to consider, such as private credit alternatives and utilization of junior capital, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Copyright And Generative AI Developments To Watch In 2024
This year could bring clarity to critical copyright issues raised by the recent surge of development in generative AI platforms, as Congress continues its legislative focus in this area and litigation tests theories of liability, say Joshua Weigensberg and Felicity Kohn at Pryor Cashman.
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5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2024
Over the next year and beyond, litigation funding will continue to evolve in ways that affect attorneys and the larger litigation landscape, from the growth of a secondary market for funded claims, to rising interest rates restricting the availability of capital, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.
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Antitrust And ESG: Maximizing Targets, Ensuring Compliance
Jennifer McAlpin at Verizon and Michaela Spero at Amadeus consider the convergence of antitrust and environmental, social and corporate governance factors, providing an executive overview of areas to watch, including mergers and acquisitions, as well as practical implementation tips for general counsel.
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4 Legal Ethics Considerations For The New Year
As attorneys and clients reset for a new year, now is a good time to take a step back and review some core ethical issues that attorneys should keep front of mind in 2024, including approaching generative artificial intelligence with caution and care, and avoiding pitfalls in outside counsel guidelines, say attorneys at HWG.
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SEC Case May Expand Scope Of Insider Trading Liability
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's first-of-its-kind enforcement action against an individual in a case involving "shadow trading" demarcates an expansion of insider trading liability to circumstances in which there is a market connection between the source of information and the issuer of the securities traded, say attorneys at Steptoe.
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What The Law Firm Of The Future Will Look Like
As the legal landscape shifts, it’s become increasingly clear that the BigLaw business model must adapt in four key ways to remain viable, from fostering workplace flexibility to embracing technology, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.
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The Year Ahead In Foreign Investment And National Security
In 2024, expect the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, already at the forefront of addressing national security threats, to increase monitoring and enforcement related to outbound investment, focus on supply chain resilience in nondefense sectors, and heighten oversight of agricultural transactions, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.