Mergers & Acquisitions

  • October 15, 2024

    Banknotes Maker Agrees To Sell Unit For £300M

    Banknotes maker De La Rue said Tuesday that it has agreed to sell its authentication division and related entities to a U.S. company for £300 million ($390 million) in a deal steered by Bird & Bird, Slaughter and May and Freshfields.

  • October 14, 2024

    Permira Wraps $7.2B Deal For Squarespace Amid Litigation

    Private equity firm Permira said Monday that it has successfully bought the outstanding stock of Squarespace Inc. in its proposed $7.2 billion deal to take the website builder private, amid ongoing shareholder litigation in the U.S. challenging the transaction.

  • October 14, 2024

    Baker McKenzie Leads Lundbeck's $2.6B Deal For US Pharma

    Lundbeck said Monday that it has agreed to buy Longboard, a U.S. biopharmaceutical business, for $2.6 billion in cash as the Danish drug giant aims to capture a drug with "blockbuster potential" to treat a rare form of epilepsy.

  • October 14, 2024

    Pulp Giant Int'l Paper Shareholders Back £5.8B DS Smith Buy

    International Paper Co. said Monday that its shareholders have "overwhelmingly" supported the planned £5.8 billion ($7.6 billion) all-share purchase of DS Smith PLC, its smaller U.K. rival, as the packaging giant eyes overseas expansion.

  • October 11, 2024

    IBM Unit Wants To Undo 'Troubling' Defamation Case Ruling

    An IBM unit has asked the Fourth Circuit to revive its lawsuit alleging a former executive's defamatory statements nearly killed a major acquisition, arguing that a lower court attempted to inject a new standard into its analysis.

  • October 11, 2024

    New Squarespace Suit Filed For Take-Private Docs

    A second shareholder of website builder Squarespace Inc. has sued in the Delaware Court of Chancery for books and records on the company's proposed $7.2 billion take-private deal with private equity giant Permira Advisors LLC, less than two weeks after the sidelining of an earlier books suit focusing on the same deal, which is set to expire late Oct. 11.

  • October 11, 2024

    M&A Dispute Triggers Could Shift Moving Into 2025

    Legal disputes are a fact of life when it comes to mergers and acquisitions, but the deal provisions seen as the most likely to spur conflict have shifted since the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have subsided, according to attorneys surveyed in a new report from Berkeley Research Group. 

  • October 11, 2024

    Fintech-Focused Cohen SPAC Leads 2 IPOs Worth $250M

    Cohen Circle Acquisition Corp. I, a special purpose acquisition company founded by financial services industry veteran Betsy Cohen, began trading Friday, one of two SPACs that completed initial public offerings for a combined $250 million.

  • October 11, 2024

    FTC's Republicans Take Aim At Agency Merger Data

    The Federal Trade Commission's two Republican members criticized a long-standing agency policy of reporting "abandoned" transactions that were never notified to the antitrust agencies as wins, while dissenting from an annual congressional report on merger reviews.

  • October 11, 2024

    Cable Co. CEO Says Buyer Fired Him In Violation Of Deal

    An owner of a Colorado aerospace manufacturing company is suing a buyer in state court for allegedly violating the terms of their asset purchase deal, claiming the buyer fabricated a reason to fire him as CEO in order to avoid paying half a million dollars that it would otherwise owe to his company.

  • October 11, 2024

    Sports Biz Seeks To Freeze Assets In Suit Over NHL Deal

    A Finland-based sports agency has asked a federal judge to enjoin a Massachusetts man from transferring or disposing of any assets while a lawsuit proceeds over a scheme he allegedly carried out to avoid paying roughly $1 million awarded to the company through arbitration.

  • October 11, 2024

    Cannabis Biz Ex-Partners Spar Over $6.4M Judgment Payout

    Two former business partners are sparring in Colorado federal court over a proposed order to hold assets related to a cannabis company to satisfy a $6.4 million judgment and whether that order can be granted in compliance with the federal Controlled Substances Act.

  • October 11, 2024

    BurgerFi Creditors Blast DIP, Bidding Procedures In Ch. 11

    Unsecured creditors of restaurant chain BurgerFi Inc. are challenging the terms of its post-bankruptcy financing package and some of the details of its planned asset sale, saying the provisions will unfairly leave creditors with little to nothing in recoveries.

  • October 11, 2024

    Kirkland, Skadden Compete Atop M&A Adviser League Tables

    The two firms at opposite ends of the bargaining table on the largest merger announced this year — Mars' $36 billion agreement to purchase Kellanova — are also running neck-and-neck in the mergers and acquisitions league tables when measured by dollar volume, according to data provided by Dealogic. 

  • October 11, 2024

    2 Finance Partners Added To Hunton's London Office

    Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP has welcomed two new lawyers, Alan Cunningham and Richard Skipper, as finance partners in its London office.

  • October 11, 2024

    Taxation With Representation: Davis Polk, Latham, Kirkland

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Rio Tinto agrees to acquire Arcadium Lithium for roughly $6.7 billion, Ares Management Corp. and GCP International reach a $3.7 billion deal, and Butterfly Equity announces plans to buy The Duckhorn Portfolio for $2 billion.

  • October 11, 2024

    Nippon To Sell JV Stake For $1 In Push To Close US Steel Deal

    Japan's Nippon Steel said Friday it has agreed to sell its stake in a 50-50 joint venture with ArcelorMittal to the European steelmaker for just $1, as Nippon seeks to address any antitrust concerns over its planned $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel.

  • October 10, 2024

    FTC's Final Merger Filings Overhaul Drops Labor Market Look

    The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday finalized its long-awaited overhaul to U.S. merger filing rules, dropping initial proposed requirements to submit preliminary deal drafts and labor market details, while also reinstating the "early termination" of reviews of benign tie-ups.

  • October 10, 2024

    Chancery OKs $9.5M Deal For Katapult SPAC Challenge

    A $9.5 million deal settled a Delaware Court of Chancery stockholder suit Thursday seeking damages arising from a stock slump following the $883 million blank check company deal that took subprime consumer lender Katapult Holdings Inc. public in June 2021.

  • October 10, 2024

    Yale Hospital Says Pension Liens Breach $435M Sale Deal

    A hospital operator's purported $4 million pension liability has saddled its properties with liens that breach a $435 million sale contract, Yale New Haven Health told a Connecticut state judge Wednesday in a letter suggesting it may add claims to litigation over its deal with Prospect Medical Holdings Inc.

  • October 10, 2024

    Chancery OKs $125M Deal, Fees In Discovery Merger Suit

    Declaring it "a great settlement," a Delaware vice chancellor approved on Thursday a near chart-topping, $125 million deal to end stockholder challenges to Discovery Inc.'s $43 billion merger with AT&T in 2022, an amount eclipsed only by a $148.2 million pretrial deal in a 2016 case.

  • October 10, 2024

    Longtime Minnesota Twins Owners Put Team Up For Sale

    The Pohlad family on Thursday announced plans to explore a sale of the Minnesota Twins, ending a 40-year reign of ownership, and has brought on Hogan Lovells as legal counsel, a source familiar with the matter told Law360.

  • October 10, 2024

    Sen. Warren, Novo At Odds On Merits Of $16.5B Deal

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday raised the alarm on Novo Holdings' planned $16.5 billion purchase of Catalent, arguing the transaction could give Novo "unprecedented" control over the production of certain obesity drugs by Eli Lilly and other top competitors, but Novo insists the deal would give it no such edge.

  • October 10, 2024

    Pfizer Threatened To Sue Former Execs, Starboard Says

    Activist investment firm Starboard Value has set its sights on pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, issuing a letter Thursday that alleges Pfizer has threatened to sue former executives that Starboard is working with and expresses "concerns about the trajectory of the business."

  • October 10, 2024

    Sports Tech Sees Threefold Increase In M&A Deal Values

    The sports tech sector saw a more than threefold increase in merger and acquisition deal values in the first half of this year compared with the second half of 2023, with more than $27 billion in transactions led by Silver Lake's $13 billion take-private acquisition of Endeavor Group, according to a report released by global tech investment bank Drake Star on Thursday.

Expert Analysis

  • How M&A Attorneys Can Best Serve Self-Funded Searchers

    Author Photo

    Post-pandemic, and with the so-called great wealth transfer on the horizon, individuals looking for small and midsize businesses to acquire are increasingly going the self-funded route, so deal attorneys must understand the major pain points and unique needs of this demographic, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Attys Can Be Heroic Like Olympians

    Author Photo

    Although litigation won’t earn anyone an Olympic medal in Paris this summer, it can be worthy of the same lasting honor if attorneys exercise focused restraint — seeking both their clients’ interests and those of the court — instead of merely pursuing every advantage short of sanctionable conduct, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • What TikTok's Race Against The Clock Teaches Chinese Firms

    Author Photo

    The Biden administration's recent divestiture deadline on TikTok parent ByteDance provides useful information for other China-based companies looking to do business in the U.S., including the need to keep products for each market separate and implement firewalls at the design stage, says Richard Lomuscio at Stinson.

  • Lean Into The 'Great Restoration' To Retain Legal Talent

    Author Photo

    As the “great resignation,” in which employees voluntarily left their jobs in droves, has largely dissipated, legal employers should now work toward the idea of a “great restoration,” adopting strategies to effectively hire, onboard and retain top legal talent, says Molly McGrath at Hiring & Empowering Solutions.

  • Live Nation May Shake It Off In A Long Game With The DOJ

    Author Photo

    Don't expect a swift resolution in the U.S. Department of Justice's case against Live Nation, but a long litigation, with the company likely to represent itself as the creator of a competitive ecosystem, and the government faced with explaining how the ticketing giant formed under its watch, say Thomas Kliebhan and Taylor Hixon at GRSM50.

  • Boeing Saga Underscores Need For Ethical Corporate Culture

    Author Photo

    In the wake of recent allegations about Boeing’s safety culture, and amid the U.S. Department of Justice’s new whistleblower incentives, business leaders should reinvigorate their emphasis on compliance by making clear that long-term profitability requires ethical business practices, says Maxwell Carr-Howard at Dentons.

  • Series

    Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge​​​​​​​ at Robinson Bradshaw.

  • Parsing Controversial Del. General Corporation Law Proposals

    Author Photo

    In response to issues raised in three recent high-profile Delaware Court of Chancery decisions, many amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law were quickly proposed that, if enacted, would bring significant changes likely to be hotly debated — and litigated — for the foreseeable future, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence

    Author Photo

    The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.

  • To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef

    Author Photo

    To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?

    Author Photo

    Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.

  • A Look At M&A Conditions After FTC's Exxon-Pioneer Nod

    Author Photo

    The Federal Trade Commission's recent consent decree imposing several conditions on Exxon Mobil's acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources helps illustrate key points about the current merger enforcement environment, including the probability of further investigations in the energy and pharmaceutical sectors, say Ryan Quillian and John Kendrick at Covington.

  • FTC Theories Of Harm After Anesthesia Co. Ruling

    Author Photo

    As Federal Trade Commission litigation against U.S. Anesthesia Partners proceeds following a Texas federal court's recent decision to dismiss a private equity sponsor from the suit, the case attempts to incorporate and advance some of the commission's theories of competitive harm from the final 2023 Merger Guidelines, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • BF Borgers Clients Should Review Compliance, Liability

    Author Photo

    After the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently announced enforcement proceedings against audit firm BF Borgers for fabricating audit documentation for hundreds of public companies, those companies will need to follow special procedures for disclosure and reporting — and may need to prepare for litigation from the plaintiffs bar, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Perspectives

    Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys

    Author Photo

    As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Mergers & Acquisitions archive.
Hello! I'm Law360's automated support bot.

How can I help you today?

For example, you can type:
  • I forgot my password
  • I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
  • How do I sign up for a newsletter?
Ask a question!