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Corp. Deal Tracker/M&A

Corp. Deal Tracker Weekly Round-Up: 9 Firms, 62 Lawyers, 8 Transactions, $11.05B

The corporate deal world in Texas saw fewer transactions the week before Thanksgiving, but capital markets activity caused deal value for Nov. 13-20 to jump to $11.05 billion. Activity ranged from private equity commitments and exits to a slew of public notes offerings as Wall Street marches toward year-end.

The biggest deal transaction of the week was Marathon Petroleum’s $8.1 billion asset drop-down to affiliate MPLX followed by Energy Transfer Partners’ $1.5 billion sale of preferred units. Baker Botts’ Josh Davidson led three of the transactions. The Texas Lawbook has all the names and details.

Corp. Deal Tracker Weekly Round-Up: 10 Firms, 48 Lawyers, 10 Transactions, $2.7B

Deal activity – led by Noble Energy’s $608 million property sale to SRC Energy and BlackRock fund’s $600 million pipeline acquisition from NGL Energy Partners and SemGroup – was strong last week. There were 10 transactions between Nov. 6 and Nov. 13, which is down 33 percent from the week before, but total deal value jump to $2.7 billion – up from $2.38 billion the week before. The Texas Lawbook has all the deals and the legal and financial advisers who handled those transactions.

Cowboys GC and Four Firms Lead Jerry Jones’ E-sports Acquisition

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Crescent owner Jason Goff turned to Cowboys GC Jason Cohen and assistant GC Kaleisha Stuart to lead a legal team that included lawyers from Winstead, O’Melveny, McCathern and Crain Caton to advise in this week’s acquisition of e-sports team Complexity Gaming.

Gibson Dunn, Locke Lord & Akin Gump Advise on $815M Midstream Deal

Houston-based American Midstream Partners assistant GC Tom Leslie, a former U.S. Army captain who served in Baghdad and Friedberg, Germany, worked with Gibson Dunn in the comany’s $815 million purchase of Southcross Energy Partners. Southcross GC Kelly Jameson of Dallas turned to Locke Lord as its legal adviser, while Akin Gump represented the Southcross conflicts committee.

Billie Ellis – A Pioneer in Private Equity & Corporate Real Estate Dealmaking

Billie Ellis posed as a rancher in 1984 to buy 2,500 acres in Arizona to develop a scientific experiment called Biosphere II, which was a dome designed to recreate Earth as a way to possibly settle Mars. He helped Bob Bass buy The Plaza Hotel for $250 million in 1988 and resold it to Donald Trump six months later for $410 million.

For four decades, Ellis has been recognized as the best commercial real estate lawyer in Texas history. He’s represented some of the most powerful and wealthy individuals in the state, including the Bass brothers, Richard Rainwater and David Bonderman. And does he have some stories to tell.

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