Under a new U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") policy related to mergers and acquisitions ("M&A"), DOJ will decline to prosecute an acquiring company for misconduct by an acquired company where the acquiring company timely...more
A Washington federal judge dismissed challenges to Starbucks's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ("DEI") policies in a strongly worded opinion, making clear that politics don't belong in his courtroom....more
The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (“CSRD”) requires the most detailed and onerous ESG reporting and disclosures anywhere in the world. All told, it is estimated that more than 50,000 companies, including...more
9/21/2023
/ Air Pollution ,
Biodiversity ,
Climate Change ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Due Diligence ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Parent Corporation ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Proposed Rules ,
Sustainability ,
Water
The Biden administration has issued a long-anticipated executive order targeting U.S. outbound investment in certain Chinese industries; however, significant steps remain before these measures are fully implemented....more
8/22/2023
/ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) ,
Biden Administration ,
China ,
Comment Period ,
Executive Orders ,
Final Rules ,
Foreign Investment ,
National Security ,
Outbound Transactions ,
Popular ,
U.S. Treasury
A new program offers rulings in 12 weeks, even absent a showing of business need.
Revenue Procedure 2023-26, issued July 26, 2023, in replacement of a popular 18-month pilot program under Revenue Procedure 2022-10,...more
8/3/2023
/ Annual Filings ,
Corporate Taxes ,
Fast Track Process ,
Federal Taxes ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Income Taxes ,
IRS ,
Revenue Procedures ,
Tax Liability ,
Tax Planning ,
Tax Returns ,
Time Extensions ,
U.S. Treasury
In Short -
SPAC Deals: Special purpose acquisition companies ("SPACs") boomed in 2020 as a means of taking early-stage private companies public. Following enhanced scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission and...more
On May 3, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted final rules regarding public company issuers' share repurchases and Rule 10b5-1 trading plans. Although the final rules are not as burdensome as the proposed...more
After a record-breaking 2021, deal activity in 2022 dropped by 37%, its largest year-over-year decline since 2001. Facing all the 2022 headwinds, including a difficult and uncertain financing market, the Ukraine war,...more
In Short -
The Background: The recent failure of Silicon Valley Bank, the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history, temporarily paralyzed start-ups, public companies, venture firms, private equity firms, and portfolio...more
In Short -
The Situation: A new nondeductible 1% excise tax imposed on certain stock repurchases (enacted as new section 4501 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act on August 12, 2022) (the "Stock Buy-back Excise Tax")...more
The European Parliament has adopted the near-final version of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive under which European Union ("EU") companies (including non-EU companies with substantial business activity in the...more
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States ("CFIUS") has released its first-ever enforcement and penalty guidelines—putting industry on notice and inviting self-disclosures....more
On September 15, 2022, President Biden issued an EO "elaborating and expanding" upon the factors CFIUS must consider as part of its national security review process. Although the EO does not change the formal CFIUS process or...more
In Short -
The Situation: On August 16, 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 into law. The Act establishes a new 15% corporate minimum tax (the "CMT") on large U.S. corporations (generally...more
In Short -
The Situation: On August 16, 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the "Act") was signed into law, enacting a new nondeductible 1% excise tax on certain share repurchases (so-called "stock buybacks"). ...more
In Short -
The Situation: Until now, Delaware corporations could eliminate or limit monetary liability for breaches of the duty of care only by directors—but not officers. ...more
On March 9, 2022, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a post-trial decision in Arwood v. AW Site Services, LLC, subsequently amended on March 24, 2022. The plaintiff, John Arwood, had spent decades building a waste...more
3/30/2022
/ Breach of Contract ,
Buyers ,
Contract Negotiations ,
Contract Terms ,
Corporate Sales Transactions ,
Post-Closing Rights ,
Purchase Agreement ,
Representations and Warranties ,
Sandbagging ,
Sellers ,
Sua Sponte
Before the pandemic, it was generally accepted that establishing an MAE was very difficult—indeed, only one case in Delaware, 2018's Akorn v. Fresenius Kabi, had ever found that an MAE occurred. Following the pandemic, this...more
The enduring COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact corporate governance practices and trends in 2021, while other notable developments, including a surge in shareholder proposals, changes to the proxy rules, and increased...more
2/4/2022
/ Climate Change ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Governance ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Proxy Season ,
Proxy Statements ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Risk Management ,
Securities Regulation ,
Shareholder Meetings ,
Shareholder Proposals ,
Shareholders
2021 was the year in which superannuation funds took center stage in Australian take-private transactions. In what has been a record year for Australian M&A activity, the weight of money rolling into Australian superannuation...more
"Anti" M&A Activism While the absolute number of companies publicly facing activist demands regarding M&A transactions decreased in 2021 vs. 2020, M&A activism represented an increased share of overall economic demands of...more
China China has increased its efforts to scrutinize global transactions that may implicate national security concerns using its foreign investment security review ("FISR") process....more
Antitrust scrutiny of M&A remained high during 2021, and merging parties continued to make follow-on divestitures designed to obtain antitrust clearance for their main transaction....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
What are the trends, risks, and opportunities in 2022?
As dealmakers recover from a record-breaking 2021, we expect another busy year in 2022. While risks in the financing market, the tightening of the regulatory...more