Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Almost 4,000 PE funds are now competing in a congested market for money-raising and PE-backed buyouts are down in number and value for the second quarter, according to Preqin. In her weekly roundup, Claire Poole has the major deals last week involving Texas lawyers and stats that describe an increasingly circumspect market for M&A.
M&A in the oil and gas sector reached $65 billion in the second quarter. Even though $57 billion of that was the Occidental purchase of Anadarko, the remaining $7.6 billion was four times the $2 billion logged in the first quarter. The bad news: it's still far lower than the $19 billion quarterly averages just a few years ago. Claire Poole clarifies.
It's S-L-O-W out there in the global M&A market. Deal value reached $842 billion in the second quarter. But that's down 27% from last year. Deal count is the lowest since 2008. Dealmakers have the jitters. And yet...The first half was the third strongest on record. And U.S. dealmaking hit its first $1 trillion half. Claire Poole deciphers these seeming contradictions in her weekly Roundup, and balances out the week that was.
Baker Botts and Vinson & Elkins are the law firms of record for Sunnova Energy International’s initial public offering, which is providing a glimmer of hope in an otherwise barren environment for energy issues.
Two law firms with deep Texas roots were involved in Genesis Park’s sale of award-winning magazine Texas Monthly to billionaire Houston heiress Randa Duncan Williams. Claire Poole has the names of the lawyers involved and details on a sale that kept a Texas icon Texan.
IPOs are hot, especially among venture capital-backed firms. How hot? In the first two months of Q2 there have been 21 offerings that generated more value than 10 of the last 11 years. And with some big names reportedly in the wings, things could get hotter. Claire Poole takes the market's pulse in Texas, along with her weekly report on the week in deal-making in the Lone Star State.
Short-term bridge loans, in the form of the SCF (subscription credit facility), are becoming an increasingly useful tool for private capital funds that don't want to keep tapping their investors on capital calls for deals. Claire Poole has the SCF growth numbers, along with her weekly insights on deal-making by Texas lawyers.
Houston-based Prosperity Bancshares is acquiring Dallas-based LegacyTexas Financial Group, a $2.1 billion deal that will help expand Prosperity's presence in the North Texas market. Bracewell assisted in the transaction and Claire Poole has the specifics.
The Keane Group and C&J Energy announced a merger this week, creating a new pressure pumping giant worth an estimated $1.8 billion in enterprise value. Two national law firms leaned heavily on their Texas-based lawyers to pull off the deal and Claire Poole has the names.
Have we entered a time of the dying deal? Claire Poole examines this question in her weekly Corporate Deal Tracker roundup.
The natural gas producer's acquisition of Denham Capital-backed Covey Park makes it the leader in the Haynesville Shale. Plus, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones increases his investment in Comstock to $1.1 billion in the deal. Claire Poole has the details.
As previously reported, the usual law firms saw decent numbers for Q1 deal counts involving Texas firms, but the drop in values were steep. Not surprisingly, financial advisors were not spared. Although the top Q1 deal counts belonged to the usual suspects, the drop in values was startling, according to Mergermarket data for Texas provided exclusively to The Texas Lawbook.
© Copyright 2026 The Texas Lawbook
The content on this website is protected under federal Copyright laws. Any use without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.
