Good afternoon,
Cleary and Linklaters both denied market rumors that they are weighing a merger, but partners say ambitious transatlantic tie-ups are not going away. On the lateral front, Simpson Thacher lifted a three-partner hybrid capital team from Akin Gump to open a new Dallas office, Goodwin added a life sciences partner to lead a new San Diego office, and Cooley took a data and privacy partner from Hunton Andrews Kurth in New York.
On the client side, Advent and Stripe made a joint $53 billion bid to take PayPal private, Uber is in advanced talks for Delivery Hero, and KKR agreed to buy 51% of Thomson Reuters' legal and tax publishing arm. IBM had its worst day ever, big banks kept beating, and new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh promised a policy "regime change" on inflation as US strikes on Iran resumed.
Now, on to what matters for your practice today.
Today’s Talking Points
-Cleary and Linklaters deny merger talk as transatlantic tie-up pressure builds
-Simpson Thacher opens Dallas with an Akin hybrid capital team; Goodwin and Cooley add partners
-Advent and Stripe bid $53B for PayPal; banks line up $50B in financing
-Uber pursues Delivery Hero for $13.7B; KKR buys Thomson Reuters' Global Print for $500M
-Writers Guild sues to block Paramount's $81B Warner Bros. Discovery deal
-IBM plunges 25% in its worst day ever as Morgan Stanley and BlackRock beat
-Warsh vows inflation "regime change" as wholesale prices fall and China growth slows
-US resumes Iran strikes but swaps the 20% Hormuz toll for Gulf investment deals
Talent Strategy
Latest Moves
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett hired a three-partner hybrid capital team from Akin Gump (Ryan Cox, Payson Lyman, Josh Morry) and installed one of the arrivals as co-managing partner of its new Dallas office.
Matt Bresnahan joined Goodwin Procter as a partner in its life sciences group in San Diego, where he will lead the firm's new office.
Michael La Marca joined Cooley as a partner in its global cyber, data and privacy group in New York, from Hunton Andrews Kurth.
What today's moves tell us: Firms are beefing up capabilities tied to private capital, life sciences, and data risk, and planting flags in Texas and California growth markets.
Operations and Strategy
Elite US and UK firms keep circling combinations as the fastest route into each other's markets.
Cleary Gottlieb and Linklaters both denied rumors that they are considering a merger, but partners and advisers told Legal Business that ambitious transatlantic tie-ups are here to stay. The pitch is that organic growth in the US is fraught with risk for UK firms, and that a large combination is the fastest way to reach the scale and New York bench that top-tier clients now expect.
The talk lands as US firms keep out-earning their London rivals and hiring aggressively across the Atlantic. For management committees, the calculus is the same one driving the day's laterals: build slowly and risk falling behind, or move for scale and take on the integration and compensation strain that has tripped up past mergers.
Practices
Private Equity and M&A
Sponsors are back on offense, and dealmakers are watching a run of take-privates and carve-outs that points to a busy calendar for corporate, financing, and antitrust teams. With banks committing tens of billions to back single deals, general counsel and fund managers are moving while financing windows stay open, giving corporate and finance practices parallel mandates on diligence, debt, and regulatory approvals.
Selected Press:
Advent and Stripe made a joint offer above $53 billion to take PayPal private at a 28% premium, with banks committing $50 billion in financing.
Uber is in advanced talks to acquire German rival Delivery Hero for $13.7 billion.
KKR agreed to buy a 51% stake in Global Print, Thomson Reuters' legal and tax publishing business, for $500 million.
Francisco Partners is in advanced talks to buy control of construction-software maker Command Alkon from Thoma Bravo for $1.3 billion.
Lionsgate is exploring a sale, and Seidler Equity Partners is weighing a sale of Rawlings Sporting Goods at a $2 billion valuation.
Genesis Minerals and Vault Minerals agreed to merge into Australia's third-largest gold producer, worth about $9 billion, a day after rival bidder Regis Resources pulled out.
Antitrust and Media
Executives weighing large media combinations are pricing in a tougher gauntlet. A guild lawsuit stacked on top of state attorneys general acting apart from federal regulators raises execution risk and lengthens timelines, pulling antitrust, regulatory, and litigation counsel in earlier and keeping merger-defense benches busy.
Selected Press:
The Writers Guild sued to block Paramount's $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, adding to a multistate challenge already forming.
Technology, IP, and Data
Decision-makers across tech are absorbing a wave of regulatory and litigation signals at once. New federal AI rules, a state-level data center freeze, and fresh court rulings on platform liability are generating work for regulatory, IP, product-liability, and data-privacy teams advising both the companies building AI infrastructure and the clients exposed to it.
Selected Press:
Apple won dismissal of a lawsuit alleging it failed to prevent child sexual abuse material on its platforms.
Google will allow third-party app stores inside Google Play, easing one front of its antitrust exposure.
The White House rolled out an AI executive order and a new cybersecurity clearinghouse to coordinate AI vulnerability detection with industry.
New York became the first state to impose a data center moratorium.
A small number of Nvidia AI chips began shipping to China under US licenses.
Capital Markets and Financial Institutions
Strong bank results and a reopening issuance pipeline give boards and general counsel a cleaner read on financing conditions. Rising investment-banking revenue points to active markets reassuring outside counsel of full pipelines. The fuller IPO calendar supports the thesis for issuance, fund finance, and listing mandates for capital markets teams.
Selected Press:
Morgan Stanley posted Q2 EPS of $3.46 on $21.35 billion of revenue, and BlackRock beat estimates with record assets under management.
Goldman Sachs is turning fund-finance subscription lines into a yield product, with investors stepping in where banks once lent.
DigitalBridge-backed data-center operator Switch hired banks for an IPO that could raise $10 billion at an $80 billion valuation.
Where the Work Sits
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The take-private wave is the clearest demand signal of the day. The PayPal, Delivery Hero, Command Alkon, and Lionsgate situations point to corporate and financing mandates, and the $50 billion of committed debt behind a single deal feeds leveraged finance and fund finance desks. When financing tightens around a shock, the work often shifts toward liability management and bespoke private-credit solutions rather than straight refinancings, so restructuring teams stay on watch.
Media consolidation is turning into a litigation and regulatory story. The Writers Guild suit against the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal, layered on state enforcement, gives antitrust, regulatory, and commercial-litigation teams high-end, billable matters as a marquee merger gets contested on multiple fronts.
The technology docket keeps widening. A federal AI executive order, New York's data center moratorium, tighter export licensing on Nvidia, and platform-liability rulings involving Apple and Google generate sophisticated regulatory, IP, product-liability, and data-privacy mandates for firms advising both AI builders and their exposed clients.
Strong bank earnings and a fuller IPO pipeline keep issuance and financing work flowing to capital markets and fund finance teams. The KKR purchase of Thomson Reuters' publishing arm is a reminder that private capital is now buying the infrastructure around the legal industry itself, not just its clients.
Global Markets
Cooler US inflation and a hawkish new Fed chair sit against a slowing China and renewed strikes on Iran.
Clients are watching Warsh’s first congressional testimony for how far the Fed will lean against inflation even as the data softens. Executives are weighing falling wholesale prices and a weaker labor market against a chair signaling no tolerance for price pressure, while dealmakers position for financing windows to stay open. Decision-makers are also tracking China’s slowdown and the return of Iran strikes as the main risks to deal timing and energy costs.
Selected Press:
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, in his first congressional testimony, pledged a policy “regime change” to restore price stability and criticized the Fed’s 2020 inflation framework.
US wholesale prices unexpectedly fell 0.3% in June, and long-term unemployment hit a five-year high with nearly 2 million out of work for six months or more.
China’s economy grew 4.3% in the second quarter, its slowest pace in three years.
US forces resumed strikes on Iran, but Washington will replace a 20% Hormuz toll with Gulf investment deals; oil sits near $87.
Stories to Watch
Fed Chair Warsh testimony (today) - his tone will set near-term rate expectations.
US Retail Sales (Thursday) - a read on consumer strength as inflation cools.
TSMC, Netflix, and UnitedHealth earnings (Thursday) - signals on chip demand, streaming, and health costs.
Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery - the Writers Guild suit and state challenges shape a major merger fight.
Iran strikes and oil - further escalation, or the dropped Hormuz toll, would swing energy costs and inflation risk.
That’s the rundown. See you next where law meets the markets.
-The BigLaw Markets Team
*DISCLAIMER: BigLaw Markets analyzes publicly available information, filings, press releases, and news stories published by reputable media sources to deliver newsletters that highlight the drivers of demand for legal services.
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