Achievements

A Latham trial, securities, and appellate team secured a complete appellate win after the Delaware Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the Court of Chancery’s post-trial judgment in favor of Latham clients Larry Ellison and Safra Catz in a stockholder derivative suit challenging Oracle Corporation’s US$9.4 billion acquisition of NetSuite Inc. in 2016. This decision marks a significant appellate victory involving one of the largest acquisitions to face a stockholder challenge through trial in Delaware.

A Latham trial team helped Sarepta Therapeutics emerge victorious as the counter-claimant in patent litigation against Nippon Shinyaku concerning treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a degenerative muscular disorder. After a one-week timed trial in Delaware federal court, jurors sided with Sarepta, finding the Nippon Shinyaku patent invalid and Sarepta’s valid and infringed, and awarded Sarepta US$115.2 million in damages.

A New York-based Latham M&A team represents Calpine Corporation and an investor consortium led by Energy Capital Partners in Calpine’s acquisition by Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Corporation (Nasdaq: CEG). The US$26.6 billion cash and stock deal creates the nation’s largest clean energy provider, opening opportunities to serve more customers coast-to-coast with a broader array of energy and sustainability products.

Latham’s Latin America Practice advised Davivienda on its agreement with The Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank Canada) to integrate Scotiabank’s operations in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Panama into Casita Roja, the largest M&A transaction in the Colombian banking industry in recent years. This strategic move enhances Davivienda’s regional positioning, enabling it to offer an innovative and competitive value proposition with a global vision to Latin American markets. The integration is expected to boost Davivienda’s total assets to approximately US$59.7 billion, a nearly 40% increase.

A multidisciplinary Latham team represented Fubo TV, the sports-first live TV streaming platform, in a definitive agreement for Disney to contribute its Hulu + Live TV business and cash to Fubo, forming a combined virtual MVPD company. Fubo will remain publicly listed on the NYSE and will be 70% owned by Disney and its affiliates. The transaction will enhance consumer choice by making available a broad set of programming offerings. 

A multidisciplinary Latham team represents Omnicom on its stock-for-stock merger with Interpublic Group — a transformational deal creating a premier marketing and sales leader for a new era. 

A Latham Asia capital markets team advised ANTA Sports, China's largest sportswear company, on its €1.5 billion convertible bond offering due 2029. The transaction represents the largest convertible bond offering by a Hong Kong listed consumer company and third largest by any Hong Kong listed company in 2024.

An Asia-led Latham team advised a Consortium led by Starwood Capital Group, Sixth Street, and SSW Partners on the HK$55.2 billion (approx. US$7.1 billion) privatization of ESR Group Limited via a scheme of arrangement from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, marking the largest such transaction since 2021.

A Latham infrastructure team advised XpFibre, the largest independent Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) infrastructure operator in France, on its €5.8 billion debt refinancing, one of the largest European digital infrastructure financing transactions to date. The landmark deal for the European fibre infrastructure market represents a fundamental shift toward a more utility-like infrastructure platform financing, reflecting the mature nature of XpFibre’s business, the long-term nature of its contracted revenues, and the supportive regulatory framework.

A multidisciplinary Latham team advised Endeavor in its sale of its sports assets, including Professional Bull Riders, On Location, and IMG, to TKO Group Holdings, a premium sports and entertainment company. The all-equity transaction is valued at US$3.25 billion. TKO’s strategic acquisition of these sports and hospitality assets adds to its existing core of UFC and WWE businesses and expands its operational footprint in the fast-growing premium sports market.  

A London-led Latham team advised existing owners EQT, CPP Investments, and Nord Anglia Education on its US$14.5 billion sale to a consortium including Neuberger Berman Private Markets, EQT, CPP Investments, and other global investors in a landmark transaction for the global education sector. Nord Anglia Education, a leading international schools organization, operates over 80 schools in 33 countries, educating more than 85,000 students. The consortium aims to diversify Nord Anglia Education's shareholder base, ensuring long-term growth and stability.

A cross-practice Latham team advised Hyundai Motor India Ltd. on its US$3.3 billion initial public offering on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE). The transaction marks the largest initial public offering in India to date and the second largest IPO globally this year. This is Hyundai Motors’ first listing of a unit outside of South Korea, with proceeds expected to enhance research and development for the automaker as part of its efforts to further improve market share in one of the world’s fastest growing auto markets.

Latham represents semiconductor leader Wolfspeed in securing funding agreements with the US Department of Commerce in one of the first grants under the CHIPS and Science Act and a consortium of strategic investment funds in one of the largest private capital deals of 2024. The US Department of Commerce and Wolfspeed announced a preliminary memorandum for up to US$750 million in direct funding. Additionally, a consortium led by Apollo, The Baupost Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and Capital Group will provide an additional US$750 million. These investments, along with US$1 billion in expected cash tax refunds, will provide Wolfspeed access of up to $2.5 billion to expand silicon carbide manufacturing in the US.

A cross-border, multidisciplinary Latham team led by members of the firm’s asset management M&A and real estate practices represents global alternative investment manager Ares Management Corporation in acquiring the international business of GLP Capital Partners, GCP International, in a transaction valued US$3.7 billion, with the potential for an additional $1.5 billion of consideration to be paid subject to the achievement of certain performance metrics. The transaction establishes Ares Real Estate as one of the largest global vertically integrated real assets platforms and nearly doubles its assets under management to approximately US$96 billion.

Latham represents high-growth, global alternative asset manager Apollo in its US$3.6 billion pending take-private acquisition of Barnes Group Inc., a global provider of highly engineered products, differentiated industrial technologies, and innovative solutions. Upon completion of the transaction, Barnes will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and become a privately held company.

A Latham Asia team advised LG Display on a series of transactions to dispose of its entire interest in LG Display (China) and LG Display (Guangzhou), which manufacture liquid crystal display (LCD) panels and modules in China, as it shifts its focus to organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology. LG Display will sell all its interests to TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co. (CSOT), subsidiary of TCL, for RMB10.8 billion.

Latham advised Ericsson on a new joint venture with some of the world’s largest telecom operators, including América Móvil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Reliance Jio, Singtel, Telefonica, Telstra, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Vodafone, to combine and sell network Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) on a global scale to spur innovation in digital services. The venture aims to implement and provide access to common APIs from multiple telecom providers to a wider range of developer platforms. The new company will unify network APIs globally, enabling new applications to work universally across networks, thus accelerating developer innovation.

Latham advised Manila Electric Company (Meralco) and its subsidiary, Solar Philippines New Energy Corporation, on its strategic partnership with Actis, a leading global investor in sustainable infrastructure, on its 40% stake in the Terra Solar Project, the largest foreign direct investment for a greenfield infrastructure project in the Philippines. The US$3.5 billion project is poised to be the world’s largest integrated renewables and energy storage project, providing electricity to c. 2.4 million Philippine households.

A Latham antitrust team has won a significant victory for client GRAIL before the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which has invalidated the European Commission’s unlawful assertion of jurisdiction over the Illumina/GRAIL merger under the EU Merger Regulation. The ECJ’s ruling marks a pivotal moment in the development of EU merger control, reinforcing the principles of legal certainty, institutional balance, and procedural fairness.

A London-led Latham capital markets team has advised CK Infrastructure Holdings Limited (CKI), one of the world's largest infrastructure companies, on the listing of its shares in the Equity Shares (International Commercial Companies Secondary Listing) category of the UK Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) Official List and trading on the London Stock Exchange's Main Market. CKI is the first company admitted to list under the newly implemented UK listing rules, and the first-ever company to be listed in the FCA’s international category.

Latham London team represents CVC on its recommended £5.4 billion private equity offer, in a consortium with Nordic Capital and ADIA, for Hargreaves Lansdown plc, the UK’s largest savings and investment platform and the UK’s biggest retail stockbroker. 

A multidisciplinary Latham team represented Lineage, Inc., the world’s largest global temperature-controlled warehouse REIT, on the largest IPO to date in 2024 and the largest REIT IPO in history. 

A Latham M&A team represents Skydance Media in its merger with Paramount, valuing New Paramount at approximately US$28 billion and Skydance at US$4.75 billion, and an Investor Group, comprising the Ellison Family and RedBird Capital Partners, in an over US$8 billion investment in Paramount Global and the acquisition of National Amusements, Inc. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2025.

Latham litigators secured a critical win for X Corp. (formerly known as Twitter) in a putative class action in the Northern District of Illinois alleging that X violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) in its use of PhotoDNA software to identify and remove images of child exploitation from the X platform. A federal court decision affirmed that data must be capable of identifying an individual to qualify as a "biometric identifier" under BIPA, resulting in a significant win for X Corp. The court ruled that the plaintiff failed to plausibly allege that PhotoDNA collects biometric identifiers, such as facial geometry scans, and agreed with X's position that data must be identifiable to qualify under BIPA. This ruling is favorable for other companies facing similar BIPA claims.