Mexico OK Leaves AGs, WGA Last Paramount Deal Obstacle

By Bryan Koenig

Paramount Skydance Corp. celebrated Mexican antitrust approval Friday of its planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery as the final government sign-off needed globally, leaving only the California federal court challenge from a group of attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America.

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Charter-Cox Tie-Up Gets Last Needed OK With Calif. Approval

By Christopher Cole

California regulators have approved the $34.5 billion merger of major cable providers Charter and Cox, providing the last needed regulatory green light but also imposing conditions meant to help consumers.

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OpenAI Fights Sanctions Bid In News Copyright MDL

By Ivan Moreno

OpenAI on Friday urged a New York federal judge to reject sanctions that could bar it from relying on a 20 million-chat evidence sample in copyright litigation brought by The New York Times and other news organizations, arguing it did not violate a preservation order or misrepresent its ability to search for copyrighted material.

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MSG Beats Charles Oakley Assault Suit Over Knicks Ejection

By Hailey Konnath

A New York federal judge on Friday threw out — this time for good — former New York Knicks player Charles Oakley's assault and battery suit over his 2017 ejection from Madison Square Garden, though the judge kept the case open as the parties continue to spar over destroyed text messages and sanctions.

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Bezos-Backed Group Inks $7B Deal For Liverpool FC Stake

By Al Barbarino

Fenway Sports Group announced Friday that it has agreed to sell a minority stake in Liverpool Football Club to an investor consortium that includes a sports investment fund backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, in a deal that values the team at more than $7 billion. 

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Analysis

$1.3B Airtable Deal Highlights Software M&A Revival

By Al Barbarino

Italian software company Bending Spoons' plan to buy Airtable is highlighting a surge in software industry consolidation following a sharp reset in private market valuations, as artificial intelligence adds another layer of pressure on companies to sell.

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Nielsen Loses At Fed. Circ., Fights Verdict In Patent Row

By Adam Lidgett

The Nielsen Co. Friday lost its attempt at the Federal Circuit to revive claims of a patent it accused TVision Insights Inc. of infringing, as it fights a jury verdict clearing TVision of infringing a separate patent.

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Bad Bunny Says Judge Made Bad Call On Reggaeton IP Suit

By Craig Clough

Attorneys for Bad Bunny and other artists Friday asked a California federal judge to reconsider his order denying their clients an early win in a sprawling copyright case over the origin of reggaeton music, saying the plaintiffs stitched together parts of multiple songs to argue they have a protectable, copyrighted work.

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SAG-AFTRA Plan Members Seek Final OK Of Data Breach Deal

By MJ Koo

Members of the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan have asked a California federal court for final approval of a $950,000 class action settlement resolving claims that a 2024 data breach exposed the personal and medical information of approximately 94,000 plan members.

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Apple Says No To Rethink Of Fed Phone Buying Subpoena

By Nadia Dreid

Apple does not think a special master should reconsider a mandate giving the tech titan a peek into how the Pentagon, CIA, State Department, and other federal agencies buy smartphones as part of a suit the federal government has filed accusing Apple of monopolization.

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App Co. Asks Court Not To Let Apple 'Drag' It Across Country

By Nadia Dreid

Communal video streaming app Rave does not want its lawsuit accusing Apple of unfairly booting it from the App Store shipped from New Jersey to California, and has asked the court not to let the tech behemoth "convert this instrument of monopoly power into a litigation shield."

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Cumulus Asks 2nd Circ. For Help With Nielsen Data Order

By Bryan Koenig

Cumulus Media sought clarification Thursday from the Second Circuit on the timing of a district court order upheld last month barring Nielsen from conditioning access to national radio ratings data on buying Nielsen's local offerings, arguing that the ratings analytics company can't hold up obeying the injunction just because it's seeking reconsideration.

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9th Circ. Says Film Industry Pension Fight Needs 2nd Look

By Grace Elletson

The Ninth Circuit on Friday revived a set designer's suit claiming that the board of the Motion Picture Industry Pension Plans stood by while certain investment funds underperformed year over year, ruling a lower court should reassess whether the board acted imprudently under a clarified legal standard.

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Disney Beats Ex-ESPN Worker's COVID Vaccine Suit, For Now

By Aaron Keller

A Connecticut federal judge on Friday dismissed a former ESPN remote video operator's lawsuit claiming the company's COVID-19 booster requirement violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and breached his employment contract, determining the worker failed to plausibly allege ESPN or its majority owner, Disney, were entangled with the government.

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$900M Va. Resort Contractors Face Wage Theft Class Action

By Jared Foretek

Carpenters building Kalahari Resorts' $900 million resort in Virginia are accusing general contractor Hensel Phelps and its subcontractor of misclassifying workers as independent contractors and stiffing them on overtime pay in a proposed class action.

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Dem Says FCC Ignores Affordability In New Broadband Report

By Christopher Cole

In the latest turn in a yearslong debate at the Federal Communications Commission, the agency's lone Democrat on Friday criticized a report spearheaded by the GOP majority touting robust broadband deployment, saying the Republicans gave short shrift to affordability issues.

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Trending Legal Implications Of Employee Influencer Programs

Employee-generated content is rapidly becoming a popular marketing strategy, as illustrated by Starbucks' new TikTok program, but it raises several legal risks for employers, including wage and hour exposure, federal disclosure obligations, and intellectual property concerns, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

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Are your summer associates prepared for a legal career?

How does your firm shape the summer associate experience and mentor new talent? Invite your summer associates to share their perspectives in this year’s Law360 Pulse Summer Associates Survey.

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Analysis

Can Texas, Nevada Replicate Delaware's Corporate Edge?

By Jarek Rutz

Texas and Nevada have spent the past few years rewriting corporate laws and building specialized business courts in an effort to challenge Delaware's long-standing dominance as the preferred home for U.S. companies. While a handful of high-profile corporations have already made the move, corporate law experts say creating another Delaware will require far more than new statutes and judges.

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Immigration Judge Says Anti-DEI Bias Led To Her Ousting

By Elaine Briseño

A Black immigration judge has sued the U.S. Department of Justice for discrimination, alleging her firing was related to anti-DEI sentiments at the agency that overwhelmingly targeted older, nonwhite women.

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White House, BigLaw Atty Picked For Tenn. Federal Bench

By Jack Karp

President Donald Trump announced Friday that he is nominating a White House attorney and former BigLaw associate to serve as a Tennessee federal judge.

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Holland & Knight Loses Bid To Escape GWG Fraud Suit

By Emily Sawicki

Holland & Knight LLP must face adversary claims in Houston bankruptcy court after a Texas federal judge found the trustee for bankrupt life insurance bond seller GWG Holdings Inc. had made a plausible case that the firm and one of its attorneys engaged in a racketeering conspiracy with its ex-chairman.

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Law Student's Race Bias Claim Survives In Kirk Discipline Suit

By Matt Perez

A Texas federal judge on Friday allowed a former Texas Tech law student to proceed with her claim that the university board was discriminatory in disciplining her over comments she made allegedly celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk because non-Black students who spoke about the assassination weren't investigated.

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Roundup

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

By Megan Norcott

The past week in London has seen newly signed Real Madrid footballer Yan Diomandé sued over access to his image rights, Nigel Farage and Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice accuse the NCA of leaking confidential financial information, and a right-wing American journalist hit The Guardian with a libel claim. 

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Boeing has won dismissal of a Delaware suit brought by pension funds accusing its board of putting profits before safety. And in-house counsel helped pick Latham & Watkins as the leader on an annual list of client service all-stars.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Baker Botts LLP and King & Spalding LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Ninth Circuit enforced an over $2 billion arbitral award issued to a satellite communications company, ruling that the legal concept of an optimal venue for a case doesn't apply in matters concerning the enforcement of international arbitral awards.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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