PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Trending Now: An IP Podcast - IP and M&A Transactions
What's Important to Get Right in the Term Sheet?
Navigating Reps and Warranties Insurance in 2024: Smooth Sailing or Rough Seas Ahead?
How to prepare for a merger and acquisition in logistics and transportation
Mergers and Acquisitions - Key Issues in Today's M&A Deals
In-house Roundhouse: Integrating Companies Post-Merger
M&As – Novation and Recertification
FCPA Compliance and Ethics Report-Episode 158-Jeff Lurie on pre-acquisition M&A protocols
Dentons Dacheng Deal Done: Will BigLaw Follow Suit?
One hundred days ago, sweeping revisions to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act Premerger Notification Form took effect. The revisions have significantly increased the time and effort to prepare HSR filings and have led filing parties...more
On February 10, Vinson & Elkins LLP’s Hill Wellford, co-chair of the firm’s antitrust group, and Kara Kuritz, an antitrust transactional partner, presented a PLI briefing “Antitrust in Transactions.” During their talk about...more
The initial days of 2025 ushered in a trifecta of significant antitrust updates for dealmakers. First, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced its annual adjustment to the monetary thresholds that apply to...more
The FTC and DOJ’s proposed revised merger guidelines signal the Biden administration’s continued aggressive antitrust enforcement stance even as healthcare industry participants continue to seek to overcome the effects of...more
On May 17, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) challenged Amgen Inc.’s (Amgen) proposed acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics plc (Horizon). The complaint is significant in three respects....more
US Regulators Pursue an Expansive View of Antitrust Laws - For almost two years, industry participants have felt the effects of the Biden administration’s “big is bad” approach to antitrust — not only in technology sectors,...more
In a deal market as uncertain as this one, we have seen transactional lawyers more frequently resorting to pushing what are known as “hell or high water” clauses - clauses that obligate parties to take “any and all...more
Editor’s Note: Akin Gump is pleased to publish the first in a series of blog posts covering significant issues U.S. boards of directors may expect to face in 2022. In addition to ongoing pressures on the part of boards of...more
On Monday, October 25, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or “Commission”) issued a policy statement announcing that the Commission will require all parties that enter into a merger consent agreement to agree that the parties...more
The proposed merger of Aon and Willis Towers Watson (WTW) has been terminated....more
On May 3, 2021, Anthem, Inc. secured its win over Cigna Corp.'s pursuit of a $1.85 billion breakup fee following the collapse of their proposed $54 billion merger. In a brief order, Justice Karen L. Valihura, writing for the...more
In re Anthem-Cigna Merger Litigation, C.A. No. 2017-0114- JTL (Del. Ch. August 31, 2020) - This action arose out of a failed merger transaction involving the second and third largest health insurers in the United States,...more
Megamergers that deprive the American consumer of competition are illegal. But the urge to merge is often so strong that antitrust risks rarely prevent behemoths from the attempt. Long before parties sign deals, issue press...more
On August 31, 2020, the Delaware Chancery Court issued an opinion in litigation between Anthem and Cigna related to the contract in their terminated merger. In its sprawling 306-page opinion, the court detailed a “corporate...more
The Federal Trade Commission's Premerger Notification Office (PNO) announced that, effective Monday, March 30, the PNO and Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) will resume the practice of granting early termination...more
Schick, the shaving product company, recently announced it was abandoning its proposed $1.4 billion acquisition of rival startup Harry’s Razors. The announcement followed the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) threat to...more
When parties begin merger talks, it is with an eye toward getting the deal done, getting the sellers their consideration, and determining how the combined company can do a better job for customers, employees and shareholders....more
February 27, 2019 On February 26, 2019, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously affirmed the district court’s denial of a Department of Justice (DOJ) bid to permanently...more
Since the beginning of the Trump Administration, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) has captured headlines for its aggressive public stance regarding merger enforcement. Actions attracting attention...more
Key Cases - Establishment Challenge to Presidential Proclamation Subject to Rational Basis Review - In Trump v. Hawaii, 138 S.Ct. 2392 (2018), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the lowest level of constitutional...more
While federal officials have stated their intent to persist in questioning vertical relationships that they hypothesize cause downstream economic effects on product flow and prices, a recent loss by the Department of Justice...more
Following a six-week trial, federal Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia recently approved AT&T’s 85-billion-dollar acquisition of Time Warner Inc. AT&T Inc. (along with its subsidiary,...more
Recent decisions outside of the health care industry—including the defeated efforts (at least at the district court level) to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner and the recent decision from the Second Circuit upholding...more
On June 12, 2018, after a six-week trial, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon denied the U.S. Department of Justice’s request to block AT&T Inc.’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc., one of the most high-profile...more
On June 12, 2018, following a six-week-long bench trial, Judge Richard J. Leon of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that AT&T’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner does not violate the...more