The Situation: To address a perceived enforcement gap, the European Commission ("EC") has issued guidelines expanding the types of non-reportable transactions subject to its "upward referral mechanism," which permits EU...more
Last week, a Mayer Brown team joined over 4,000 lawyers from around the globe—including top enforcers from the US Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), Department of Justice (“DOJ”), and the European Union (“EU”)—to discuss new...more
M&A activity in the digital infrastructure sector has been growing year-on-year in Europe, with deal counts and cumulative deal values highlighting the resilience of this asset class. 2024 is likely set to hit a new peak of...more
On 24 January 2024, the European Commission (“Commission”) unveiled its proposals to reform the current EU Foreign Direct Investment Screening Regulation 2019/452 (“FDI Screening Regulation”). This forms part of a wider...more
The European Commission’s (“Commission”) substantially revised Market Definition Notice (“Revised Notice”) will make it significantly easier for it to allege that mergers and other transactions (“mergers”) are likely to...more
A takeover offer from a controlling shareholder presents a challenge to boards of directors who are tasked with protecting minority shareholders, particularly where some of the directors on the board may have relationships or...more
European Commission’s record gun-jumping fine on Illumina serves as warning to merging parties - The European Commission (EC) has imposed a fine of around EUR432 million on genomics company Illumina for closing its...more
In Short - The Situation: On July 10, 2023, the European Commission ("EC") adopted the Implementing Regulation ("IR") and the corresponding notification forms (Form FS-CO and Form FS-PP), which specify the information and...more
In data 21 ottobre 2022 è stata pubblicata la comunicazione della Commissione Europea del 21 ottobre 2022 concernente gli orientamenti relativi alla procedura di vendita alle condizioni migliori di crediti deteriorati sui...more
On June 30, 2022, the EU institutions reached a political agreement on the text for the FSR that will give far-reaching powers to the EC to control subsidies provided by non-EU governments to businesses active in the EU....more
In both our DAMITT 2021 Report and our Q1 2022 Report, we warned that parties to transactions subject to significant merger investigations were more likely to see the FTC or DOJ sue to block their deal or push them to abandon...more
In a recent high-profile judgment, the EU’s General Court confirmed that the European Commission (“EC”) can, upon referral by a national competition authority in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), review deals that do not...more
In the U.S., “significant” merger investigations include Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act reportable transactions for which the result of the investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or the Antitrust Division of the...more
Europe saw a major increase in public M&A activity in 2021, fueled by cheap money and optimism as economies started to emerge from the worst effects of the pandemic. In particular, PE purchasers with dry powder to deploy and...more
The European Commission’s June 2020 White Paper outlined its initial plans for a subsidies regime. The Commission has now developed these plans in its proposals for a new regulation....more
Regulators are becoming increasingly active in imposing measures on deals or prohibiting them altogether under FDI rules – with prohibitions happening in the EU’s largest economies Germany, France, and Italy in the past...more
The Takeover Panel has just published its response statement (2020/1) making important changes to the Takeover Code regarding offer conditionality and timetable. They take effect on 5 July 2021 and will apply in relation to...more
Welcome to the fourth edition of our “Public Takeovers in Germany” newsletter. It provides an overview of public takeovers carried out in Germany in 2020 under the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act (WpÜG) and of...more
France’s highest Court (Cour de Cassation) recently ruled that an acquiring entity, in this case Iron Mountain, could be found liable for violations committed by the target, here Recall France, before the transaction. ...more
The Dechert Antitrust Merger Investigation Timing Tracker (DAMITT) is a quarterly release from Dechert LLP’s Antitrust/Competition practice reporting on trends in significant merger control investigations in the United States...more
Foreign investment control has become a key factor in M&A deals and 2020 was a particularly eventful year. A large number of countries have recently introduced foreign investment control regimes (or tightened their existing...more
On 14 January, the German Parliament passed far-reaching amendments of German antitrust law, the Act against Restraints of Competition (ARC), which also affect merger control. The amendment, also known as the "German...more
Drugmaker AstraZeneca agreed on Saturday to buy biopharma company Alexion for $39 billion in cash and stock. In the deal—the “biggest by a health care company this year”—will help AstraZeneca expand into the immunology...more
DoorDash is entering the public markets fray today with hopes of “cash[ing] in on the frenzy in initial public offerings” of late. The food-delivery company is expected to price shares “at the high end of or above its...more
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on 6 November published draft updates to two of its merger guidance documents (CMA2 and CMA56) in preparation for the end of the Brexit Transition Period on 31 December 2020....more