Columbia Law School
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M & A
Why M&A Rumors Cause a Dip in Firm Productivity
Rumors are common in financial markets and often relate to mergers and acquisitions (M&A). While the majority of M&A rumors originate from speculation or opinion pieces (Jia et al., 2020) and never turn into deal announcements, academic research finds that …
The Lowdown on SPACs
In 2020, the number of IPOs by a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) set records: A total of 248 SPAC IPOs raised over $75 billion. The boom continues in 2021: Each of January and February has seen over 90 SPAC …
Stealth Acquisitions and Product Market Competition
In a recent study, we examine whether firms structure their mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to avoid scrutiny from antitrust regulators as well as whether such deals reduce product market competition.
While M&A deals are often triggered to create value, they …
Skadden Discusses FTC Moratorium on Early Terminations of HSR Waiting Periods
On Thursday, February 4, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), with the concurrence of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (DOJ), announced that it had suspended the process by which requests for early termination of Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR Act) waiting …
Skadden Discusses “The Year of the SPAC”
Transactions by special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, exploded in 2020, resulting in a 320% increase in the number of SPAC initial public offerings (IPOs) compared to 2019. SPACs have been around for 15 years and now are established as …
Goodwin Procter Discusses CFIUS Process for “Non-Notified Transactions”
Much has been reported in the media about the efforts of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to investigate — and, where appropriate, mitigate, or even divest — transactions that the parties did not submit to …
The Lost Lessons of Shareholder Derivative Suits
Many corporate law scholars watched in amazement as merger litigation exploded over the past 15 years. In 2005, only 37 percent of mergers involving U.S. public companies and with a transaction size of at least $100 million were challenged in …
Wachtell Lipton Discusses M&A Activity in 2020 and Expectations for 2021
Deal activity (or inactivity) for much of 2020 was driven first by the unprecedented uncertainty and massive global shutdown of the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, and then propelled by rising markets and confidence as animal spirits anticipated the …
Quinn Emanuel Discusses Director Liability for Successors’ Acts
A great deal of buzz has been generated by the recent decision from the Southern District of New York in In re: Nine West LBO Securities Litigation, No. 20 MD 2941 (JSR) 2020 WL 7090277 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 4, 2020), …
Ropes & Gray Discusses UK’s National Security and Investment Bill
In November, the UK Government announced a significant and wide-ranging package of reforms that, if adopted, will both recalibrate and expand its existing powers to assess and intervene in mergers and acquisitions on the grounds of national security.
The proposed …
Cooley Discusses Delaware Chancery Case on MACs and Business Covenants During COVID
In the months following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a slew of parties filed lawsuits in US courts relating to M&A transactions that were signed prior to March 2020 and that buyers were seeking to terminate as a result …
Contract Design, Default Rules, and Delaware Corporate Law
Incomplete contract theory recognizes that parties have neither the interest, nor the time, nor the ability to anticipate and address every contingency in contracts. The more complex and time-sensitive the transaction, the more practical constraints force lawyers to limit the …
Quinn Emanuel Discusses COVID-19 M&A Litigation in Delaware
Many high-profile transactions impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic have fallen apart between signing and closing, resulting in litigation – often in the Delaware Court of Chancery – focused on whether the buyer had an obligation to close. Buyers backing out …
Are M&A Lawyers Really Better Than Other Transactional Lawyers at Contract Drafting?
Simpson Thacher Discusses UK Bill to Reform Review Process for Foreign Direct Investment
On November 11, 2020, the Parliament of the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) introduced the National Security and Investment Bill of 2020 (the “NSI Bill”) to modernize the U.K.’s foreign direct investment (“FDI”) screening process and strengthen its ability to investigate and …
Fenwick & West Discusses Mitigating Class Action Litigation Risk for SPAC Transactions
Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) are increasingly being used as an alternate vehicle to traditional initial public offerings. Companies that go public through a traditional IPO process are often subject to shareholder securities class actions. Inevitably, securities class actions will …
Morrison & Foerster Discusses the Private Side of Going Private Transactions
In this article, we follow up on our overview of going private transactions (available here) by focusing on an important but often overlooked workstream in these deals. Companies are frequently privatized by a group of significant shareholders, outside investors …
Gibson Dunn Discusses Stock-for-Stock Mergers During the Coronavirus Crisis
The widespread economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19 poses distinct challenges for buyers and sellers seeking to identify M&A opportunities, as companies evaluate the impact of the pandemic on their businesses to date, and seek to predict its future impact. Continued …
Paul Hastings Discusses Internal Document Review in M&A and the Amazon/Deliveroo Case
In recent years, there has been a proliferation of merger control rules throughout the world as well as policy changes in the field. As shown by Amazon’s experience in its recent 16% minority shareholding acquisition of the online restaurant delivery …