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On the eve of SXSW, it seems like a good time to explore the venture capital business in Texas, especially since some major firms are using the festival’s venues in Austin to court some of the emerging VC stars. The Lawbook’s Claire Poole takes a look at some of the names to look for, along with her weekly chronicle of Texas-inflected transactions.
Year-to-date, there have been 136 deals valued at $42.58 billion - about the same number of transactions at this time last year but 46 percent less in terms of value ($78.8 billion). Capital markets activity continued to build this past week, with six transactions valued at $1.262 billion versus 14 M&A/private equity/venture capital deals worth $1.771 billion. Texas Lawbook Senior M&A Writer Claire Poole has the inside details.
Lawyers in Texas reported work on 18 percent more transactions last year than in 2017 with $1 billion-plus deals dominating the activity. Claire Poole takes a deep dive into data collected exclusively by The Texas Lawbook’s Corporate Deal Tracker.
With the increased influence of private equity, dealmaking in a marketplace crowded by money is skewing toward larger and larger deals. But a survey shows that a large number of private equity firms say they are ready to unload their portfolios if there is a market correction in the next 12 months. In her CDT Weekly Roundup Claire Poole explores that further, as well as last week's Texas deals.
At the North American Prospect Expo there were back rubs and parties, an artist painting colorful vistas and a replica of a 1936 Auburn Speedster. But there were also deals. And talk of deals. So Claire Poole begins her weekly Roundup of Texas deal activity from the NAPE exhibit floor.
Houston-based Targa Resources Corp. announced Tuesday that it agreed to sell 45 percent of North Dakota unit Targa Badlands to funds managed by GSO Capital Partners and Blackstone Tactical Opportunities for $1.6 billion in cash. Claire Poole has the details.
Ivana Rouse is Latham's third lateral partner hire in Houston this year. She will be a partner in the firm's corporate department and a member of the investment funds practice.
Baker Botts, one of the oldest, largest and most successful corporate law firms in Texas, has chosen John Martin, a partner in its Palo Alto office, as its next managing partner. He is the firm's first non-Texas based partner to lead the 725-lawyer operation.
Here are the top 50 M&A transactions involving Texas-headquartered companies in 2018 as compiled exclusively for The Texas Lawbook by Mergermarket.
Should the M&A market be preparing for a slow start to 2019? The data crunchers at Interlinks think so. They project first half growth of only 5 percent over H1 2018. Claire Poole explains their reasoning in her weekly CDT Roundup.
Merger and acquisition activity usually starts out the year slowly and then builds. Bloomberg has reported that last month was the best January for deals globally since 2000 with $275 billion worth of transactions. So if past patterns hold, 2019 could be a very big year for dealmaking. Claire Poole explains in her weekly CDT Roundup.
Barclays and Goldman Sachs top the 2018 league tables for investment banks advising on Texas deals. But the real story in exclusive Mergermarket data provided to The Texas Lawbook may be the trend toward fewer but bigger deals in the state and elsewhere. Claire Poole explains.
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