We’ve already identified the key players on the M&A side of Pepsi’s offer to acquire the balance of the shares of its former subsidiary, Pepsi Bottling Group. Then PBG rejected the offer and came back with that surprise meeting at which the company adopted a poison pill. Now we know who the litigators are (at least on the Pepsi side). Davis Polk is doing both the deal and the suit, with litigators Arthur Golden (RPI BS ’66, NYU JD ’69) and Lawrence Portnoy (Michigan BA ’85, Harvard JD ’88) stepping in now that it’s getting ugly. Complaint here.
Laura Prendergrast-Holt, the former CIO of the Stanford investment companies, has been indicted on charges of conspiring to obstruct an SEC investigation and actual obstruction. You’ll recall that she’s the one who testified in front of the SEC without a lawyer. She thought she had a lawyer, but Thomas Sjoblom from Proskauer “explained” at the hearing that he was her lawyer only to the extent her interests aligned with his actual client, the companies. She sued him. She has a lawyer for real this time, Jeff Tillotson.
Eric Goldman has done a deeper dive on Barnes v. Yahoo, a case we wrote about because it featured a lawyer who had been fired by, and sued, Yahoo. He thinks the decision is a mess.
AMD’s is spending too much time celebrating its competitor’s $1.5 billion antitrust fine. Lawyers at O’Melveny & Myers think Intel’s anticompetitive behavior in the EU is also actionable in the US and are getting ready to file. Gibson Dunn represented Intel in the losing effort.
The Midway Games investors are suing Sumner Redstone for trying to pawn the company off on a previously unknown investor (and former lawyer). Shearman & Sterling made the introduction, but now plenty of other BigLaw firms are getting in on the party. According to AmLaw Daily:
- the unsecured creditors/plaintiffs are repped by Milbank;
- Mintz Levin represents Shari Redstone, who is Sumner’s daughter, not wife as the article says;
- Dewey & LeBoeuf represented the Midway board and wants to represent some directors; and
- Kramer Levin represents the investor.
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