Americas Antitrust Review 2021
Covid-19 has made 2020 into a year like no other with ‘stay at home’ orders and working from home the new normal. Nonetheless, the tech and pharma industries continued to attract immense antitrust scrutiny, with daily reports in the media and pressure from politicians to address what some perceive to […]
IRS Releases Guidance on PPP Loans and Employee Retention Tax Credits
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued several items of new guidance relating to loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), including two new FAQs addressing the interaction of PPP loans and employee retention tax credits (ERTCs) in M&A transactions, a Revenue Ruling holding that expenses funded by PPP loans […]
Highlights from Cooley’s M&A Dealmakers Roundtable: SPACs!
On September 24, Cooley M&A partner, Garth Osterman, moderated a webinar on the current trend in going public: SPACs! Dave Peinsipp, co-chair of Cooley’s capital markets practice group and Rama Padmanabhan, a Cooley M&A partner participated in the webinar which focused on the current wave of SPAC activity and how […]
DOJ Issues Merger Remedies Manual as Both DOJ and FTC Step Up Efforts to Enforce Consent Decrees
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division issued a new Merger Remedies Manual on September 3, clarifying the analytical framework it is using to evaluate remedies that may address competitive harms stemming from proposed mergers and acquisitions, as well as from consummated mergers. In announcing the modernized Manual, Assistant […]
SBA Issues Guidance for Borrower Changes of Ownership
Over the last few months, dealmakers have worked creatively in M&A transactions to give borrowers of PPP loans the benefit of their bargain with the government—forgiveness of the loan—rather than treat the PPP loan as outstanding debt requiring discharge at closing (which would typically result in a further reduction in […]
Investment Funds Beware: Proposed HSR Amendments Would Increase Reporting Obligations
The US Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice announced proposed changes to the rules governing Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) filings that, if implemented, would significantly increase the number of transactions that must be reported to the antitrust agencies – primarily by private equity, venture capital and other investment funds – as […]
Pandemic-Related Deal Litigation Highlights Buyer Leverage in Transactions Requiring Debt Financing
In a May blog post we discussed several initial observations regarding the dozens of M&A transactions that were signed prior to March 2020 and that were in jeopardy as a result of COVID-19. Since that post, the Delaware Chancery Court has had the opportunity to consider some preliminary issues relating […]
Drinks with the Deal: Cooley’s Jamie Leigh
Jamie Leigh, partner and co-chair of the M&A practice group, discusses advising tech and life sciences companies, her work for Mirror on its agreement to sell to Lululemon and how she’s staying sane in the pandemic on this installment of Drinks With The Deal, a podcast series hosted by David […]
Do We Have a Quorum?
Although its final episode aired more than a decade ago, there is still debate about the ending of HBO’s critically-acclaimed series, the Sopranos. In fact, as one critic notes, “the only objectively true statement that can be made about that ending is that it’s ambiguous.”[1] This ambiguity was embraced and lauded […]
Renegotiating Deal Terms? Delaware Reminds Fiduciaries of Unremitting Duties
In Captain Phillips, a pirate hijacks a ship and turns to the captain and says (in what is an amazing improvised line) “Look at me, I’m the captain now.”[1] While the comparisons between piracy and M&A will take us only so far, let us start with an observation: boards and […]
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