Articles

Yesterday, the Department of Justice announced that it filed a lawsuit seeking to block JetBlue’s proposed acquisition of Spirit Airlines. While the DOJ and Federal ...

With the FTC and DOJ taking an increasingly aggressive approach to merger review and enforcement, merger agreement terms allocating antitrust risk are becoming an ...

In Teamsters Local v. Martell, (Del. Ch.; 2/23), the Chancery Court dismissed breach of fiduciary duty claims against the former CEO of Core Logic. Those allegations ...

Public company mergers of equals aren’t uncommon, but since the stock of private companies isn’t liquid, an MOE involving private companies has been a relatively ...

Companies are likely to see continued investor and activist pressure to divest non-core businesses in order to generate higher multiples for the parent or the divested ...

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about how Vice Chancellor Will’s decision in Garfield v. Boxed, (Del. Ch.; 1/23), prompted a number of SPACs to file actions seeking ...

When it comes to ESG diligence, my sense was always that ESG considerations could be a deal breaker, but they were rarely a deal driver. In fact, John has blogged here a ...

A recent Weil going private survey showed that going-private transactions reached a new high in 2022 by volume and value (up 51% from 2021), with over half of the ...

John previously blogged about Politan’s lawsuit against Masimo Corp. seeking to overturn the bylaw amendments adopted by the company following the effectiveness of the ...

A recent Cooley blog discusses 10 key trends from the European market that shaped global M&A in 2022 and are expected to continue to impact deals this year. Many of ...

Last month, I blogged about the Chancery Court’s decision in Garfield v. Boxed, (Del. Ch.; 1/23), which indicated that a separate class vote was required to authorize ...

In a statement accompanying the FTC’s annual report to Congress on the HSR Act, the Democratic commissioners again called for legislation extending the time periods ...

If you haven’t encountered the problem of an unlicensed “business broker” who expects to be paid for their role in bringing a buyer and seller together, you ...

White & Case recently published its 2022 US de-SPAC & SPAC Data & Statistics Roundup, and the numbers are every bit as ugly as you think they are. Here are ...

Andrew Abramowitz recently blogged about a really critical part of the deal process that lawyers overlook at their peril — making sure that clients understand the ...

Debevoise recently published the latest edition of its Special Committee Report, which surveys transactions announced during the period from July through December 2022 ...

A recent Cleary memo discusses the outlook for shareholder activism in 2023. In addition to highlighting the potential implications of universal proxy, the growth of ...

Over on the Delaware Corporate & Commercial Litigation Blog, Francis Pileggi and Sean Brennecke have posted a review of last year’s key Delaware corporate and ...

Earlier this week, the FTC announced the new thresholds for HSR filings. This excerpt from Fenwick’s memo on the new thresholds has the details: Size of Transaction ...

A motion for attorneys’ fees may seem like an odd place to address the provisions of Section 242 of the DGCL that require separate class votes to approve certain ...

Last year was a pretty dismal one for IPOs, and I haven’t seen many predictions saying that 2023 will be a banner year for going public either. That being said, the ...

Last month, in SMART Local Unions and Councils Pension Fund v. BridgeBio Pharma, (Del. Ch.; 12/22) the Chancery Court dismissed breach of fiduciary duty allegations ...

Dechert recently published its annual “Dechert Antitrust Merger Investigation Timing Tracker” report on the timing of significant merger investigations, and its ...

Katten’s recent “2023 Middle Market Private Equity Report” provides plenty of insights into how PE firms view the challenges and opportunities middle-market deals ...

In early January, the Vice Chancellor Zurn issued her decision in Ainslie v. Cantor Fitzgerald, (Del. Ch. 1/24), which addressed the limitations on enforceability of ...

Sullivan & Cromwell recently published its annual report on 2022 shareholder activism and activist settlement agreements. The publication addresses a wide range in ...

Last week, the FTC issued a proposed rule that would ban the use of non-compete agreements in most settings. However, the FTC does propose to allow them in connection ...

Picking up where she left off with her decision in the Multiplan case almost exactly one year ago, Vice Chancellor Will last week declined to dismiss breach of fiduciary ...

One of the questions raised by the 1% excise tax on stock repurchases by the Inflation Reduction Act was how it would apply to SPAC redemptions. The IRS recently issued ...

Kramer Levin recently published a memo on “sandbagging” that covers the various contractual approaches parties can take to the issue and the default rules that New ...

A recent blog from Freshfield’s Ethan Klingsberg offers up some predictions on M&A for the upcoming year. One that may come as a surprise to many dealmakers is his ...

According to an analysis by Bloomberg Law’s Emily Rouleau, “mega deals” didn’t escape the overall downturn in M&A activity last year: After reaching an ...

A recent White & Case memo reports that the Consolidated Appropriations Act that Congress passed just before Christmas includes some big changes for HSR filing fees. ...

A recent article from Mergers & Acquisitions says that small deals outperformed the overall M&A market in 2022 and are poised to do so again next year. This ...

The SPAC industry received an unwelcome present on Christmas Day when the Wall Street Journal announced that the party was officially over: During the boom in ...

Yesterday, the Delaware Supreme Court issued its decision in Boardwalk Pipeline Partners v. Bandera Master Fund, (Del. 12/22). The Court reversed a 2021 Chancery Court ...

A recent memo from Goodwin’s Sean Donahue takes a look at some of the lessons learned from the first proxy contest conducted after the effective date for the universal ...

The Delaware Supreme Court’s majority decision in Bandera focused primarily on the terms of the MLP’s partnership agreement and the appropriate way to interpret ...

Yesterday, the FTC voted to file an administrative complaint to block Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of video game titan Activision-Blizzard. According to the ...

Several recent Delaware decisions have addressed the potential liability of third parties for aiding and abetting breaches of fiduciary duties, but in Atlantic NWI v. ...

Prior business dealings between a company’s controlling stockholder and members of a special committee evaluating a transaction with that controller can call into ...

In our recent podcast, Hunton Andrews Kurth’s Steve Haas discussed bylaw changes that companies should consider in response to the implementation of the universal ...

A recent blog from Weil’s Glenn West reviews a pair of Delaware decisions in which non-reliance, exclusive remedy and non-recourse clauses intended to sharply curtail ...

I worked on a number of bank deals over the years and due to the regulatory approval process, all of them took a lot longer to close than almost all of the other deals I ...

It isn’t often that you see a stockholders’ representative argue that funds held in escrow shouldn’t be released to the seller, but that’s the situation the ...

Dechert recently published its 2023 Global Private Equity Outlook Survey, which surveyed 100 senior executives of PE firms with $1 billion or more in assets under ...

With valuations of many early-stage companies tumbling, some of those companies are staring at the possible need for a “down round” equity financing. Down rounds are ...

Last week, the New York Times published an epic account of the decline and fall of the corporate marriage between Time Warner and AT&T under the title “Was this ...

Activists and their advisors are seeing red over some changes to advance notice bylaws being implemented by companies in response to the universal proxy rules. In a ...

As regulators in the U.S. and abroad ramp up their scrutiny of potential M&A transactions, a recent Skadden memo addresses the need for directors to take on a bigger ...

In a down M&A market, it’s not surprising that PE and VC firms would be taking a close look at their legal fees, and a recent survey of 300 in-house lawyers at ...

I know that Chancellor McCormick has been absolutely swamped over the last several months dealing with the Twitter litigation, but spare a thought for Vice Chancellor ...

Intralinks recently published its M&A Leaks Report, which analyzes deal leaks over the period from 2009 to 2021, and breaks them down by world region, country and ...

Last week, the FTC issued a policy statement setting forth a sweeping new claim to enforcement authority under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Up until ...

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Florence Pan permanently enjoined Penguin Random House’s proposed acquisition of Simon & Schuster. In doing so, Judge Pan found that ...

In Kodiak Building Partners, LLC v. Philip D. Adams, (Del. Ch.; 10/22), the Chancery Court invalidated a non-compete covenant agreed to by a target’s former employee ...

Private equity has become one of U.S. antitrust regulators’ prime targets during the Biden administration, and a recent Freshfields blog says that European regulators ...

Projections about a portfolio company’s financial performance are a customary part of any private equity investment, but because the parties involved are sophisticated ...

A target’s compliance with laws governing political involvement is an area that doesn’t typically get a lot of attention during M&A due diligence, but a recent ...

Last week, the Treasury Department issued its first ever CFIUS Enforcement and Penalty Guidelines. According to the Treasury’s press release announcing the guidelines, ...

Kroger and Albertsons’ announcement of their proposed merger last Friday was followed almost immediately by wailing and gnashing of teeth over the deal’s antitrust ...

As we’ve watched private equity sponsors increasingly reshuffle their deck of portfolio companies through secondary buyouts, some prominent commenters have expressed ...

The Twitter v. Musk litigation continues to churn on through seemingly endless discovery disputes, but there’s at least one related case that has given deal lawyers ...

I’ve blogged a couple of times about the potential impact of the tax provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act on M&A transactions. A recent Cooley blog looks ...

Drag-along rights entitling the lead investor to compel other investors to participate in a sale transaction are a common feature in stockholders’ agreements for ...

Earlier this year, Weil issued a survey highlighting the key terms of 2021 sponsor-backed, going private deals. The survey covered 23 U.S. sponsor-backed, going private ...

With higher borrowing costs, squishy valuations and exits harder to come by, a recent Institutional Investor article says that private equity sponsors are eschewing ...

Twitter’s battle with Elon Musk has prompted a lot of discussion about the proper remedies for jilted sellers in mergers and acquisitions litigation. A recent article ...

Because a divested business’s infrastructure is often so intertwined with the seller’s other businesses, a divestiture buyer often needs the seller to continue to ...

Last week, President Biden signed an executive order intended to enhance CFIUS’ ability to address emerging national security risks in its review of transactions. ...

The efforts required to obtain antitrust or other regulatory approvals for a deal are often among the most heavily negotiated aspects of the merger agreement. In some ...

Antitrust regulators have made it clear that they intend to take a hard look at potential violations of Section 8 of the Clayton Act, which prohibits director ...

Some days it isn’t easy to come up with content for this blog, and today is one of those days. It looks like my choices have come down to either blogging about another ...

The bursting of the SPAC bubble has left quite a few companies that went public via a de-SPAC looking for an exit. The depressed valuations of these companies might make ...

Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly important tool for many businesses. But like any emerging technology, the use of AI in a target’s business raises a ...

Last week, in In Re Match Group Inc. Derivative Litigation, (Del. Ch.; 9/22), the Chancery Court held that IAC/InterActive’s 2019 reverse spin-off of its Match.com ...

Over the past several weeks, there’s been a lot of interesting commentary on some of the implications of the SEC’s universal proxy rules. Here are some of the ...

It turns out that the 1% excise tax on buybacks isn’t the only provision of the Inflation Reduction Act that complicates things for dealmakers. A recent Wachtell memo ...

The FTC recently announced that it had adopted omnibus resolutions authorizing compulsory process in various antitrust investigations, including those related to non-HSR ...

Traditionally, proxy advisory firms have effectively recommended one slate or the other in proxy contests. While they may have endorsed the election of a dissident’s ...

Reverse termination fees are an interesting topic — unlike termination fees, there’s little reason for Unocal or Revlon concerns to potentially limit their size and ...

Here in Ohio, we’re being warned to be on the lookout for the spotted lanternfly. I guess this thing showed up in the U.S. about a decade ago and is becoming quite a ...

The Delaware Chancery Court recently issued a 113-page post-trial opinion in In re: BGC Partners Derivative Litigation, (Del. Ch.; 8/22), holding that BGC Partners’ ...

Courts generally recognize that controlling stockholders have an incentive to maximize stockholder value in a third-party sale, and even if that transaction is subject ...

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal discussed the FTC’s aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement, noting that the agency has thrown “sand in the gears” ...

A recent Morris James blog reviews a ruling from Master in Chancery Patricia Griffin addressing various privilege issues arising in a dispute between parties to a ...

When there’s a big slump in public company valuations, a surge in going private deals is almost sure to follow — particularly when private equity is sitting on a ...

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States released its latest Annual Report to Congress. The report covers calendar year 2021, which was the first full ...

In order to establish the existence of a proper purpose for a books and records demand under Section 220 of the DGCL, a stockholder must demonstrate a “credible ...

U.S. private company deals typically have some sort of post-closing purchase price adjustment mechanism. In the U.K. and Asia, a “locked-box” approach is more ...

Last week, in City Pension Fund for Firefighters & Police Officers v. The Trade Desk, (Del. Ch.; 7/22), held that the controlling stockholder of The Trade Desk, ...

Last week, in In re GGP Stockholder Litigation, (Del.; 7/22), a divided Delaware Supreme Court overruled the Chancery Court and refused to dismiss breach of fiduciary ...

In Lee v. Fisher, (9th Cir.; 5/22), the 9th Circuit upheld a prior district court ruling dismissing federal disclosure claims and state law derivative claims on the ...

The Department of Justice recently settled a False Claims Act proceeding against a company that erroneously certified that it qualified as a small business in connection ...

A recent Fenwick memo discusses a proposed FTC consent order involving a completed acquisition that targets the terms of the non-competition language included in the ...

Elon Musk apparently has had a lot of company over the past couple of months when it comes to trying to wiggle out of a deal. According to a recent analysis by Bloomberg ...

“Milestone” payments are a common feature of life science deals, both public and private. Whether you’re dealing with a contingent value right in a public company ...

In case you missed it, the credit markets have become pretty choppy in recent months and a lot of debt issued by private equity portfolio companies has been trading at a ...

Judging from the comments submitted on the SEC’s SPAC proposal, it’s pretty clear that those in the M&A business aren’t exactly fans of the SEC’s proposed ...

As has appeared inevitable for some time, Elon Musk formally attempted to terminate his merger agreement with Twitter on Friday. Here’s the termination letter from ...

M&A activity declined sharply in the first half of 2022, but a new Datasite report says that dealmakers expect an uptick during the second half of this year and the ...

In many cases in which the meaning of an “efforts clause” governing the buyer’s conduct with respect to the achievement of earnout payment milestones has been an ...

Last week, The Activist Investor’s Michael Levin hosted a free one-hour webinar on the SEC’s new universal proxy rules; a free replay of the program is available at ...

A recent Pillsbury memo says that market conditions are ripe for a revival of M&A activity in Japan. With the yen trading at 20-year lows and geopolitical ...

In OJ Commerce, LLC v. KidKraft, Inc., (11th Cir.; 5/22), the U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit, held that a private equity firm can’t conspire with its portfolio ...

The comment period for the SEC’s SPAC rule proposals recently expired and, as usually happens in response to a major rule proposal, a flurry of comment letters from ...

It looks like the party’s over when it comes to the low interest rate environment that dealmakers have enjoyed for many years. That means they may need to get a little ...

I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of many situations that would be more of a hot mess than when a deadlocked board can’t agree on a slate of nominees and ...

Last week, in StreamTV Networks v. SeeCubic, (Del.; 6/22), the Delaware Supreme Court overruled a prior Chancery Court decision and held that an insolvent company’s ...

Private equity sponsors looking to fundraise from new investors should expect to dig a little deeper into their own pockets — at least that’s one of the implications ...

The past several years have seen significant growth in general partner-led secondary transactions, which enable a sponsor to effectively extend the duration of an ...

A target’s compliance with its obligations under software licenses is an area of M&A due diligence that doesn’t always get the attention that it should given the ...

Matt Levine had another great column the other day in which he discussed the recent renegotiation of Thoma Bravo’s proposed acquisition of Anaplan and bemoaned the ...

Like everybody else, many PE portfolio companies are feeling a cash squeeze due to margin erosion, supply chain issues and other factors. In response, a recent PitchBook ...

Bringing fiduciary duty claims based on insider trading may seem somewhat incongruous given the pervasiveness of federal law in this area, but Delaware has recognized ...

Over on The D&O Diary, Kevin LaCroix blogged about a Delaware federal court’s decision in Liberty Insurance Underwriters v. Cocrystal Pharma, (D. Del.; 5/22). In ...

Delaware courts acknowledge that controlling stockholders generally have an incentive to maximize stockholder value in a third-party sale, but will apply the entire ...

In 2019, the European Commission imposed a €28 million fine on Canon for closing its 2016 acquisition of Toshiba Medical Systems without complying with the EC’s ...

Dechert recently published a white paper that provides an overview of the foreign direct investment and national security review regimes in the U.S., EU, China and other ...

In Totta v. CCSB Financial, (Del. Ch.; 6/22), the Delaware Chancery Court held that language in an antitakeover charter provision giving the board broad authority to ...

The 1974 classic “Chinatown” contains one of the most memorably bleak closing scenes in film history. After witnessing the film’s villain — a proverbial ...

Yesterday, in Goldstein v. Denner, (Del. Ch.; 5/22), the Delaware Chancery Court refused to dismiss breach of fiduciary duty claims against the officers and directors of ...

A recent Wilson Sonsini memo highlights recent statements by senior DOJ and FTC officials that suggest that antitrust regulators are increasing their scrutiny of the ...

One of the things that sometimes drives businesspeople up a wall about lawyers is our obsession with recordkeeping. Minutes, board and stockholder resolutions, ...

Elon Musk has made a career out of playing with fire and somehow avoiding getting badly burned. I guess it helps to be the richest guy in the world, but from “funding ...

Earlier this month, Spirit Airlines’ board rejected JetBlue’s efforts to persuade it to abandon its deal with Frontier in favor of JetBlue’s competing proposal. ...

I recently blogged about some of the implications of the proposed SPAC rules for investment banks that underwrite SPAC IPOs. Under the terms of the proposed rules, these ...

A Gibson Dunn memo says that the FTC is contemplating potentially significant changes to the information required to be filed under the HSR Act. Here’s the ...

The most common structure for acquiring a U.K. public company in a friendly transaction is a “scheme of arrangement,” in which the target company seeks a court order ...

Wachtell Lipton published the 2022 edition of its 245-page “Takeover Law and Practice” outline. The outline addresses directors’ fiduciary duties in the M&A ...

Last summer, the Delaware Supreme Court overruled a Chancery Court decision upholding a disputed share issuance used by an incumbent board to resolve a stockholder ...

As Broc used to so colorfully put it, we’re posting “oodles” of memos on the SEC’s SPAC proposal in our “SPACs” Practice Area. A recent one from Debevoise ...

A new regulatory regime that would limit certain US outbound investments in other countries has been kicked around in Congress and by national security officials in the ...

Tesla’s 2016 acquisition of SolarCity has been a deal blogger’s paradise for the last six years, and I had high hopes that Vice Chancellor Slights’ post-trial ...

Dissident stockholders that have nominees rejected based on the terms of an advance notice bylaw often argue that the board’s rejection of the nomination notice was an ...

Twitter filed its merger agreement last night. The 8-K filing has a fairly detailed description of the agreement and, based on the description and a quick flip through ...

Twitter and Elon Musk announced mid-afternoon yesterday that their bizarre mating dance had culminated in a signed merger agreement under the terms of which an entity ...

Most corporate lawyers have a Delaware-centric view of the world and expect that most other U.S. jurisdictions will fall in line with Delaware when it comes to major ...

Wachtell Lipton recently issued the 2023 edition of its “Spin-Off Guide.” This 83-page publication is a terrific resource for getting up to speed on the wide variety ...

Twitter filed its shareholder rights plan with the SEC yesterday and it’s pretty boring. There aren’t any aggressive twists on the definition of beneficial ownership ...

On Friday, Twitter announced that it was adopting a shareholder rights plan in response to Elon Musk’s unsolicited buyout proposal. That document hasn’t been filed ...

Last week, I blogged about ESG due diligence, which has gone from a buzzword to a high priority item in M&A transactions in a short period of time. Privacy and ...

According to a recent survey conducted by DataSite, the future of M&A is female. In light of the data suggesting that female-led transactions outperform those led by ...

Language addressing compliance with U.S. trade restrictions and other sanctions is a common feature of reps and warranties in acquisition agreements. Well, Bloomberg ...

Seyfarth Shaw published the 2020/2021 edition of its “Middle Market M&A SurveyBook,” which analyzes key contractual terms for more than 175 middle-market private ...

Last year, I blogged about a situation in which a hacker apparently changed the payment instructions a target shareholder provided to a paying agent in connection with a ...

The SEC announced rule proposals on March 30th intended to enhance disclosure and investor protection in special purpose acquisition companies’ initial public ...

The most recent issue of Evan Epstein’s Board Governance Newsletter discusses the decision of some venture capitalists to eschew seeking board seats in connection with ...

It has been a little surprising that nearly three years into the SPAC boom, Delaware has weighed in on the corporate law issues surrounding special purpose acquisition ...

I’ve previously blogged about In re Multiplan Stockholders Litigation (Delaware Court of Chancery, 2022), the Chancery Court’s first decision addressing fiduciary ...

How does having women in leadership positions affect merger and acquisition strategies and outcomes? Those are the topics considered in a recent Intralinks report, which ...

The regulatory environment for vertical mergers has changed significantly in recent months — and with the antitrust agencies promising a rewrite of the merger ...

Earlier this month, the Delaware Supreme Court once again weighed in on the subject of the obligations created by preliminary agreements relating to potential business ...

A Proskauer blog discusses how the EU’s robust enforcement of cybersecurity and privacy regulations are increasing the risk of liability to private equity fund ...

A recent Forbes article by Okapi Partners’ Bruce Goldfarb says that recently de-SPACed companies may face a wave of activism this year. This excerpt says that Third ...

Last month, I blogged about the Delaware Chancery Court’s decision in BCIM Strategic Value Master Fund v. HFF, (Del. Ch.; 2/22), in which Vice Chancellor Laster ...

As most readers know, “sandbagging” in the M&A context refers to the ability to rely on the other side’s representations even if you know that the rep is ...

In Level 4 Yoga v. CorePower Yoga, (Del. Ch.; 3/22), Vice Chancellor Slights was called upon to address a question of contract interpretation that I don’t recall ...

A WilmerHale memo (p. 6) reviews commonly used antitakeover provisions and their prevalence among IPO companies, the S&P 500, and the Russell 3000. In addition to ...

This is pretty far down the list of priorities when it comes to the sickening events of the last couple weeks in Ukraine, but the new sanctions imposed on Russia for its ...

Late last year, Weil issued a survey highlighting the key terms of 2020 sponsor-backed going private deals. The survey covered 20 U.S. sponsor-backed going private ...

Sometimes, people assume that if a director has a conflict, abstaining from voting on a transaction will be enough to insulate that individual from a fiduciary duty ...

A WilmerHale memo reviews recent FTC challenges involving vertical mergers and discusses some of the implications of those actions. Here’s the intro: Since March ...

In Strategic Investment Opportunities v. Lee Enterprises, (Del. Ch.; 2/22), the Delaware Chancery Court rejected a hostile bidder’s allegations its nominees for ...

I think I may be the last person in America – or at least the last one on social media – who hasn’t succumbed to the Wordle craze. That’s not unusual – as my ...

I’ve blogged a few times in recent years about mootness fees, which have become a popular alternative for plaintiffs asserting M&A disclosure claims post-Trulia. ...

There’s an interesting detail in the press release announcing Standard General’s $5.4 billion acquisition of TEGNA – it turns out that the buyer has agreed to pay ...

Bloomberg Law’s Grace Maral Burnett has a new article that looks at references to cryptocurrencies & crypto assets in publicly filed acquisition agreements. ...

It looks like one of the emerging trends in recent Delaware case law is an increased willingness to allow claims against buyers premised on allegations that they aided ...

In Wei v. Zoox (Del. Ch.; 1/22), the Chancery Court granted a protective order limiting the discovery that a company would be otherwise be required to provide to ...

KPMG has put together this whopping 615-page handbook on accounting for business combinations. To my knowledge, this is the first comprehensive resource from one of the ...

Yesterday, the SEC announced proposed amendments to 1940 Act rules governing private fund advisers. Check out the 341-page proposing release and the more digestible ...

Delaware law requires a court dealing with an appraisal action to determine the fair value of a share as of the effective time of a merger. In BCIM Strategic Value ...

Transition Services Agreements are an important component of many M&A transactions. Because the parties don’t always know at the outset the nature and extent of ...

Now that he’s out of government service and back at Harvard Law School, former SEC Corp Fin Director and General Counsel John Coates isn’t pulling any punches when ...

Wachtell Lipton recently published a memo previewing M&A in 2022. One of the interesting points raised in the memo is the possible return of “club deals,” which ...

In a recent speech, Jonathan Kanter, the head of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division discussed his approach to merger remedies. What did he have to say? Well, how can I put ...

On Wednesday, the SEC announced proposed amendments to Form PF, the confidential reporting form used by certain SEC-registered investment advisers to private funds to ...

Over on The Activist Insight Blog, Josh Black recently discussed Mercury Systems’ decision to adopt a shareholder rights plan with a 7.5% threshold in response to an ...

The FTC recently announced the new HSR thresholds for 2022. Here’s an excerpt from a Shearman memo with the details: Generally, HSR notifications are required for ...

Last week, I blogged about the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal, which has a nearly $70 billion price tag and is a “mega deal” by any definition. Deals this big ...

Activision Blizzard recently filed the merger agreement for Microsoft’s proposed $70 billion acquisition that the two companies announced earlier this week. Since ...

Many private company acquisition agreements exclude consequential damages from the scope of the coverage provided under the agreement’s indemnification provisions. A ...

Yesterday, the DOJ & FTC announced that in order to address “mounting concerns” about the impact of mergers on competition, they are “soliciting public input ...

A recent Intralinks article by national security consultant John Lash of Darkhorse Global addresses a topic that I haven’t seen much written about – the potential ...

Last month, I blogged about Vice Chancellor Will’s decision in Swift v. Houston Wire & Cable, (Del. Ch; 12/21), which touched on the issue of when, under the terms ...

During the pandemic, most M&A activism has focused on opposing a pending deal or improving its terms, rather than pushing boards to seek a potential sale. This ...

According to Coller Capital’s most recent Global Private Equity Barometer, limited partners think that “continuation funds” are a potential game changer. Here’s ...

Earlier this week, in In re Multiplan Stockholders Litigation, (Del. Ch.; 1/22), the Delaware Chancery Court for the first time addressed fiduciary duty issues in the ...

Disclosure schedules have been the bane of junior M&A lawyers’ existence for decades, but to my knowledge, there hasn’t been much case law addressing them in ...

Not surprisingly, it’s been kind of quiet in Delaware this week, but that gives me a chance to blog about an interesting recent busted deal decision from the Ontario ...

One of the things I’ve learned from the past five years of blogging is that the Delaware Chancery Court is just as likely to issue a 200-page opinion that’s hard to ...

The Delaware Chancery Court hears a lot of earnout cases, but very few have financial stakes as large as those involved in Vice Chancellor Will’s recent decision in ...

In a recent workshop, representatives from the DOJ & FTC addressed possible ways of promoting competition in labor markets and suggested that changes to the ...

Last month, the Delaware Supreme Court issued a one-page order affirming the Chancery Court’s decision invalidating The Williams Companies’ “anti-activist” ...

Here’s a situation that has to be on the short list of any M&A lawyer’s worst nightmares: a hacker apparently managed to change the payment instructions that a ...

Last week, SEC Chair Gary Gensler gave a speech in which he outlined the agency’s regulatory priorities when it comes to SPACs. Gensler started by comparing SPACs to ...

A Sidley blog highlights a pair of recent Delaware lawsuits challenging de-SPAC mergers. The blog notes that as with prior SPAC-related M&A lawsuits, conflicts of ...

In Swift v. Houston Wire & Cable, (Del. Ch; 12/21), the Chancery Court addressed the question of whether a plaintiff in a Section 220 books and records lawsuit had ...

A recent North Carolina Business Court decision provides yet another cautionary tale about the potential for a letter of intent to be viewed as a binding contract. The ...