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

  • Series

    The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan

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    Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.

  • HSR Amendments Intensify Merger Filing Burdens, Data Risk

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    The antitrust agencies' long-awaited changes to premerger notification rules under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act stand to significantly increase the time and cost involved in preparing an initial HSR notification, and will require more proactive attention to data issues, says Andrew Szwez at FTI Technology.

  • State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape

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    Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.

  • Making Sure Your Co. Isn't In The Next Section 13(f) Sweep

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    Enforcement actions taken against 11 institutional investment managers for alleged failures to file forms required by Section 13(f) of the Securities Exchange Act serve as a reminder that firms should carefully monitor their obligations to avoid becoming the target of the next enforcement sweep, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • 8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney

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    A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.

  • Opinion

    This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process

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    In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Series

    Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.

  • Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys

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    Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.

  • 8 Issues AI Firms May Encounter As M&A Action Accelerates

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    As the AI merger climate heats up, potential complications may arise, including antitrust scrutiny, talent retention agreements, and aggressive and protective deal terms intended to compensate for lofty valuations, say Scott Schwartz and Kishan Barot at Manatt.

  • Series

    Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

  • Secret Service Failures Offer Lessons For Private Sector GCs

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    The Secret Service’s problematic response to two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump this summer provides a crash course for general counsel on how not to handle crisis communications, says Keith Nahigian at Nahigian Strategies.

  • Building US-Japan Relationships In The M&A Market

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    The prospect of U.S.-Japanese mergers and acquisitions presents stronger competition to U.S. investors in the global M&A markets, while also opening up an additional exit route for sellers looking to offload strategic assets, says Nick Wall at A&O Shearman.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • Opinion

    AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

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    The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

  • Series

    Round-Canopy Parachuting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Similar to the practice of law, jumping from an in-flight airplane with nothing but training and a few yards of parachute silk is a demanding and stressful endeavor, and the experience has bolstered my legal practice by enhancing my focus, teamwork skills and sense of perspective, says Thomas Salerno at Stinson.

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