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Cooley’s 2023 Tech M&A Year in Review: An AI-Generated Glass Half Full

2023’s much-discussed downturn in mergers & acquisitions – with global M&A volume and value down 6% and 17%, respectively, from 2022 – was largely driven by the slowdown in the tech sector, with global tech M&A volumes down...more

Apples, Oranges and Lemonade: Pursuing Multiple Strategic Alternatives in the Public Company Boardroom

In all economic cycles, engaged public company boards and management teams do their homework on the wide range of potential strategic opportunities. In the current market environment, however, we have observed that an...more

Cooley’s 2022 Tech M&A Year in Review

Tech M&A in 2022 was a tale of two halves. The year started off with a bang, with mega-deals such as Microsoft’s pending $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter and...more

Cooley’s 2021 Tech M&A Year in Review

General trends in tech M&A Hello, (virtual) world once again! Despite everyone’s efforts in 2021, including the rollout of vaccines and varying rounds of lockdowns and work-from-home mandates, a true “return to normal” for...more

Blog: Cooley’s 2020 Tech M&A Year in Review

A Tale of Two Years - While we continue to absorb and understand the worldwide pandemic shockwaves of 2020, trying to encapsulate the vicissitudes of the past year in an annual recap is daunting. Early weeks of the...more

Blog: Social Distancing From a (Supposed) Life Partner: Early Lessons From Deals Terminated and On the Rocks in the COVID-19 Era

In “La La Land,” Damien Chazelle’s Oscar winning film, the audience thinks it has a formulaic Hollywood love story on its hands: boy and girl meet; boy and girl fall in love; boy and girl break up; and boy and girl get back...more

Blog: Cooley’s 2019 Tech M&A Year in Review

In the wake of record-setting volume and value metrics in 2018, practitioners eyed the 2019 deal market with healthy skepticism. Despite a slight downward tick in momentum and overall deal statistics, 2019 remained a robust,...more

Blog: Cooley's 2019 Life Sciences M&A Year in Review

2019 was a banner year for billion-dollar life sciences M&A transactions. A wave of big-ticket transactions by global pharmaceutical companies drove life sciences M&A activity to its fourth-largest year on record in 2019,...more

Blog: Taking a Play out of the Financial Acquirer’s Playbook

As the NFL season gets underway, it is interesting to see how certain plays go from fringe status to near-universal. A recent example is the “run-pass option” that, before finding a home in every NFL team’s playbook, was used...more

Blog: Use of Earn-Outs to “Bridge” the Valuation Gap

There’s an old saying, probably at some point attributed to Abraham Lincoln or Einstein, that a bridge shows no allegiance to either side. It’s a wonderful metaphor and one that dealmakers would be wise to remember when...more

9/3/2019  /  Buyers , Earn-Outs , Mergers , Sellers

Blog: MAEjor Ruling: Delaware Court of Chancery Finds Target Suffers Material Adverse Effect and Acquirer Could Back Out of...

M&A practitioners have long advised boards of directors that the Delaware courts have never found that the events or circumstances in a particular transaction met the contractual standard of having a material adverse effect...more

Alert: Ninth Circuit Rules Tender Offer Disclosure Challenges Do Not Require Proof of Intent to Deceive

On April 20, 2018, the Ninth Circuit ruled that shareholder claims for false or misleading tender offer disclosures under Section 14(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 require a mere showing of negligence, rather than...more

Blog: The Cooley Outlook for 2018 M&A

What’s on tap for 2018 M&A? A recap of 2017 trends and the Cooley outlook on this year’s dealmaking: - Buying Innovation: Retention and Non-Competes. For both old-line companies and tech giants, innovation is the name of...more

Alert: Delaware Supreme Court Reverses Dell’s Merger Appraisal Price Bump

On December 14, 2017, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed and remanded the Court of Chancery's appraisal of the fair value of Dell Inc. The trial court's 2016 ruling, which found that a $25 billion management-led buyout...more

Blog: The Art of Drafting Milestones for an Earn-Out

Former stockholders of SARcode Bioscience were recently denied a claim that they were entitled to be paid $425 million in milestone payments under a merger agreement. The decision provides an anecdotal lesson in drafting...more

Blog: Non-Competes for California Employees in M&A Deals: Don’t Fudge It

Post-employment non-compete covenants are generally invalid in California, with certain limited but important exceptions like when a business or associated goodwill is sold and the buyer – as part of the deal – wants to...more

Blog: Martha Stewart Decision Draws Roadmap for Controller Sales to Third Parties

A transaction involving a controlling stockholder on both sides of the deal presents a clear conflict of interest that will result in heightened scrutiny under the “entire fairness” standard of review if later challenged....more

Blog: Allergan Fined for Failure to Disclose Merger Negotiations with Third Parties During Hostile Bid

At what point do “discussions” with a friendly merger party become “negotiations” that are required to be publicly disclosed under the tender offer rules in response to a hostile bid? In a recent settlement of cease and...more

Blog: Data Points from Recent Appraisal Decisions

As concerns over the potential exercise of appraisal rights are increasingly being factored into deal price, data points from recent Delaware appraisal decisions may help inform a party of its appraisal risks and, if an...more

Blog: Treatment of M&A Non-solicits and Employee Comp Diligence Under New Antitrust Guidelines

Last month, the FTC and DOJ issued a set of antitrust guidelines addressing certain employment and compensation practices that are most likely to occur in the high-tech and healthcare industries where highly-skilled employees...more

Blog: Cybersecurity Diligence in M&A Transactions: Lessons from Verizon/Yahoo!

Recently, in the midst of an M&A transaction involving Verizon and Yahoo!, news broke of a Yahoo! cybersecurity breach that had occurred approximately two years earlier. This event raised a lot of speculation around what...more

Blog: Federal Court Gives Teeth to Operational Efforts Covenant in Sanofi/Genzyme Earn-Out Dispute

We keep a close eye on developing cases regarding earn-outs and contingent payment rights in light of the prevalent use of these arrangements in life sciences deals and their increasing use in non-life sciences deals. On...more

Blog: Dell Decision and Recent Amendments to Delaware’s Appraisal Statute

Section 262 of the DGCL provides a statutory remedy for stockholders who do not vote in favor of certain M&A transactions (generally cash mergers) to petition the corporation to buy their stock at a price equivalent to the...more

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