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A Flavor for Every Sector Keeps Texas M&A Simmering

There was a little bit of everything in Texas M&A for the week ended Dec. 6, with 16 deals reported and a cumulative value of $9.9 billion.

And we do mean everything.

Industrial device manufacturing. Check. Texas bank consolidation. Check. Deals in the AI power generation ecosystem. Check. Billion-dollar Permian midstream deals. Check. Funding for defense drones. Check. Healthcare software. Check. Waste removal investment. Check. Variable PE swaps in school safety software, pool building, and HR assets. Check. And, of course, a few debt offerings reshuffling pandemic era debt. Also check.

That and more in this edition of CDT Roundup.

Houston Jury Awards $138M, Finds Breach of Contract 

A Southern District Court jury in Houston awarded $138 million to Carlo Civelli, who claimed Philippe Mulacek owed him money he loaned to him and broke agreements they made. The pair had worked together in a company, InterOil, which invested in properties in Papua New Guinea for potential oil and gas.

“It’s been a long and hard-fought battle to get to this point,” said Munsch Hardt’s Richard Schwartz, who represents Carlo Civelli.

Adding Texas Divestitures, DOJ Approves $16.4B Constellation/Calpine Merger

A $16.4 billion merger that would create the nation’s largest provider of wholesale electricity cleared its final hurdle Friday with an announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice that Constellation Energy and Houston-based Calpine Energy had agreed to resolve antitrust concerns with the divestment of six power plants based in the Northeast and Texas.

P.S. — TX Appleseed, V&E and Witherite Making the Holiday Spirit

The Texas Lawbook will announce next week the finalists for the 2025 DFW Corporate Counsel Awards, including Achievement in Pro Bono and Public Service and Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion. In addition, the Texas Lawbook Foundation is seeking interests for its board of directors. More details in this week’s column, plus, we have two firms — Vinson & Elkins and the Witherite Law Group — and a group of lawyer volunteers led by Michael Hurst that are spreading the holiday spirit early, and TODAY ONLY we have an extraordinary opportunity to help Texas Appleseed achieve some of its amazing public service work.

The 1915 Letter to the Editor Championed Women Serving on Juries

When I was a teenager, my grandmother told me that her grandmother, “Nana,” marched for women’s suffrage.

What impressed my grandmother was not just that Nana walked the streets with throngs of other women clamoring for voting rights; it was that she did so despite being a woman who personally had little to gain from equal suffrage.

Nana was a married, middle-aged mother who, as my grandmother put it, “wore black chiffon at night.” In other words, she was a woman of means. As such, Nana benefited from the status quo. Practically speaking, she had reason to resist change. Still, she believed women should have the right to vote. So, she marched.

She also wrote.

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