Deals

Europe

UK watchdog to investigate Facebook takeover of Giphy

CMA concerned acquisition could lessen competition for creation of gifs popular on social mediaThe UK’s competition regulator is launching an in-depth investigation of Facebook’s $400m (£290m) acquisition of the gif creation website Giphy over fears that it could lead to a squeeze on the supply of gifs to other social networks such as Snapchat,...

Financiers behind NSO Group in struggle for control of private equity firm

Rift at Novalpina Capital, whose fund owns surveillance equipment firm, has been largely concealed from public viewThe company had been the focus of scrutiny for years – a seller of controversial surveillance equipment coveted by governments across the world. So when three financiers behind a private equity fund led the acquisition of NSO Group in...

UK watchdog investigates Penguin owner's Simon & Schuster takeover

CMA says it is considering whether Penguin Random House’s $2bn deal would lessen competitionThe UK competition watchdog has launched an investigation into Penguin Random House’s (PRH) $2bn (£1.45bn) takeover of rival book publisher Simon & Schuster.The Competition and Markets Authority said on Monday it was considering whether the deal, which...

Jay-Z sells majority stake in Tidal music streaming service to Jack Dorsey's Square

$297m deal hands control to Twitter co-founder, with Beyoncé, Madonna, Rihanna and other Tidal co-owners retaining stakesSquare, the mobile payments firm run by Jack Dorsey, Twitter co-founder, has acquired a majority stake in Jay-Z’s Tidal audio and video music streaming service in a $297m deal.Under the terms of the deal, Tidal’s superstar co-owners,...

Daily Mail owner buys New Scientist magazine in £70m deal

The 65-year-old title is forecast to make £7m in profits this yearThe publisher of the Daily Mail has acquired the renowned weekly science and technology magazine New Scientist in a £70m cash deal – the latest round of consolidation in the publishing sector.The 65-year old title, which is owned by a group of individual investors led by Sir Bernard...

International

Tomorrow’s Webcast: “ESG Considerations in M&A”

Tune in tomorrow for the webcast – “ESG Considerations in M&A” – to hear the Hunton Andrews Kurth’s Richard Massony, Seyfarth’s Andrew Sherman and K&L Gates’ Bella Zaslavsky discuss the ESG considerations that are increasingly “front and center” for both buyers and sellers in M&A transactions. – John...

Blank Check Reverse Mergers: Del. Chancery Hits Pause On Reviving Zombie Corp.

I’ve been aware of the somewhat sketchy practice of using public shells as vehicles for going public via reverse mergers for a long time, but I guess I’ve never focused on the fact that a lot of those companies are defunct Delaware corporations that are reincarnated by promoters to serve as public shells. In In […]Read More

Transactional Insurance: The Year in Review

This Marsh report reviews the transactional risk insurance market in the U.S. & Canada during 2020.  The report notes that despite the challenges created by the pandemic, the marketplace for RWI & other transactional risk insurance remained strong, with new entrants to the market and existing insurers continuing to deploy capital. The report...

Antitrust: FTC Challenges Vertical Merger

On Tuesday, the FTC announced that had filed an administrative complaint & authorized a federal lawsuit to stop Illumina’s $7.1 billion proposed acquisition of Grail, which is developing an early stage cancer detection test. What makes this challenge particularly interesting is that involves a vertical merger, not a merger between competitors....

Comparability Provisions: Treatment of Employees in M&A Agreements

Acquisition agreements often include language under which the buyer promises that the target’s will continue to receive compensation & benefits comparable to those they received before closing, at least for a specified period of time.  This Willis Towers Watson memo discusses the reasons for including comparability provisions in acquisition...