Legal News

A big jump in unemployment claims, as reported yesterday, confirmed fears that a “resurgent pandemic” is challenging U.S.’s economic recovery. Some 1.15 million workers filed initial claims for state unemployment benefits during the first full week of 2021......By: Robins Kaplan LLP

Visa is “abandoning its $5.3 billion planned acquisition of Plaid Inc.,” a fintech startup that the DOJ had called an upstart “but important competitive threat to Visa” in its antitrust lawsuit challenging the deal....By: Robins Kaplan LLP

Another day, another new Google antitrust lawsuit—this time thanks to a group of 30-plus states that have accused the company of “illegally arranging its search results to push out smaller rivals.” Oh, and money likely won’t be enough for resolution....By: Robins Kaplan LLP

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 sector....By: Robins Kaplan LLP

The long-awaited Facebook antitrust bomb dropped on Wednesday, with the FTC and attorneys general from more than 40 states accusing Zuck & Co. of “buying up its rivals to illegally squash competition” in D.C. federal district court suits that “underscore the growing bipartisan and international tsunami against Big Tech.” The regulators are calling for those deals (think Instagram and WhatsApp, especially) to be unwound....By: Robins Kaplan LLP

In yet another blow to the suffering movie theater industry, Warner Bros. announced on Thursday that all of its 2021 release calendar—including “big-budget extravaganzas like ‘Dune’ and ‘The Matrix 4’”—will arrive “simultaneously in theaters and on the HBO Max streaming service in the United States.” The move, which Warner is calling a “unique one-year plan,” is the company’s means for addressing its assessment that U.S. moviegoing won’t recover until at least next fall....By: Robins Kaplan LLP

Tuesday’s Senate Committee hearing with Fed Chair Powell and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin showed the growing rift between the two over their views of “challenges facing the United States economy in the months ahead.”...By: Robins Kaplan LLP

Bay area business software powerhouse Salesforce is “in advanced talks to buy Slack Technologies,” the “buzzy newcomer on a mission to replace office email.” A deal could be announced as early as tomorrow, and it would mark Salesforces’ biggest-ever acquisition (as Slack has a market value of over $17 billion)....By: Robins Kaplan LLP

Former Fed Chair Janet Yellen is “poised to become the first female Treasury secretary and one of few people to ever have wielded economic power from the White House, the Federal Reserve and the president’s cabinet.” If confirmed, Yellen would face “the economic fallout created by a pandemic that continues to inflict damage”....By: Robins Kaplan LLP

BuzzFeed has struck a deal with Verizon Media to acquire HuffPost, a mash-up that “would join a pair of digital-media giants that have found themselves searching for readers and revenue as they have fallen prey to some of the same difficulties that once afflicted old-media newspapers and magazines”....By: Robins Kaplan LLP