Event Recording: The Impact of Foreign Investment Screening Regimes on M&A Transactions
Recent years have seen a proliferation of foreign investment screening and control regimes worldwide, and with them, heightened government scrutiny of foreign investment transactions. The implementation of such “foreign direct investment” (FDI) regimes has accelerated as national governments broaden their conceptions of national security issues and seek to protect an […]
Cooley Stands Apart in Women and M&A Deal Leadership
A recently published article by UC Davis School Law Professor Afra Afsharipour, “Women and M&A,” shows that of the 20 firms handling the most significant public M&A transactions from 2014 to 2020, Cooley is the only firm with equal gender representation in leading roles across such deals. “The outlier position […]
President Biden’s Executive Order on Competition: Three Important Takeaways for Tech and Life Sciences Companies
On July 9, President Joe Biden issued an executive order on “Promoting Competition in the American Economy.” With 72 initiatives and directives by more than a dozen federal agencies, the order seeks to aggressively “reduce the trend of corporate consolidation, increase competition, and deliver concrete benefits to America’s consumers, workers, farmers, and small businesses.” […]
Keeping Up with Delaware Appraisal Jurisprudence Since Aruba: Deal Price Reigns Supreme, But Will Recent Decision Lead to More Arbitrage?
In a string of seminal decisions from 2017 through 2019 (DFC Global, Dell and Aruba), the Delaware Supreme Court re-shaped appraisal jurisprudence, in each case by overturning the Court of Chancery for failing to give adequate weight to deal price as the most reliable indicator of fair value. In the […]
Event Recording: M&A Dealmakers Roundtable: Tech M&A Outlook for a Post-COVID World
How has dealmaking changed in the last 18 months? Have we developed new playbooks or best practices? Will the market continue to accelerate through 2021 and beyond? What does all of this mean for the wider tech sector? Seasoned M&A dealmakers met on June 30, 2021 for a discussion on […]
Have Your Cake, and Closing Too: Invoking Prevention Doctrine, Delaware Chancery Court Grants Seller’s Request for Specific Performance in COVID-Related M&A Dispute
Chancellor McCormick’s opinion in Snow Phipps Group, LLC, et al. v. KCake Acquisition, Inc., et al. (Del. Ch. April 30, 2021) is 125 pages long, but she helpfully digests the holding in a single sentence on page 3: “Chalking up a victory for deal certainty, this post-trial decision resolves all […]
Event Recording: The Tech M&A Bounceback
Axios + Cooley hosted a virtual event on new deal-making in tech M&A. We discussed the future of the market and how innovative teams are getting things done. Axios Technology & Business Reporter Kia Kokalitcheva and Business Editor Dan Primack hosted conversations with: Stewart Butterfield – Co-founder & CEO, Slack […]
SPAC Trend Gives Rise to Securities Enforcement and Litigation Risks
What is a SPAC Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) are on the rise. A SPAC is a publicly traded shell company with no underlying operating business that seeks to merge with a target operating company. According to Nasdaq, in 2015, SPACs made up approximately 12% of the IPO market, but by […]
Podcast: For Women to Climb in M&A, Male Allyship is ‘Essential’
In an installment of Law.com’s “Legal Speak” podcast, Jamie Leigh, partner and co-chair of Cooley’s mergers and acquisitions practice group, discusses the various levels of support needed to help build more diverse and equitable M&A teams in Big Law, including male allyship, as well as the importance of strategic thinking […]
HSR Headwinds: FTC Hits ‘Pause Button’ on HSR Early Terminations
Parties to transactions requiring filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act are already facing considerable headwinds from US President Joe Biden’s antitrust enforcement agencies on important substantive and procedural issues that will delay transactions closing and potentially increase compliance costs and burdens. The HSR Act requires parties to transactions that meet certain financial thresholds to notify the […]