CDT Roundup: 16 Deals, 15 Firms, 157 Lawyers, $29.9B

A policy "pause" in the expansion of LNG exports announced late last month by the Biden Administration came as a shock to many. U.S. LNG exports are not only regarded as strategic help for Western allies following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but a viable climate-friendly alternative to coal. But life in the energy biz is never so simple, especially when it comes to fossil fuels. And this week's CDT Roundup takes a quick look at the factors that seems to have led to the pause, and the potential it could have on Texas M&A. That, and the usual review of last week's Texas-related corporate transactions.

February 20, 2024 Claire Poole & Allen Pusey

CDT Roundup: 26 Deals, 14 Firms, 196 Lawyers, $10.8B

VC M&A has suffered from the same statis markets as any other kind of M&A. But it's been a while since the CDT Roundup has focused on startups, so this is the week. With the help of PitchBook, The Lawbook's Claire Poole takes a look at what those in the industry are predicting for the coming year. Are non-SPAC IPOs making a comeback? That, and a look at a rather raucous week of 26 pretty disparate deals and the lawyers who worked on them.

February 13, 2024 Claire Poole

CDT Roundup: 12 Deals, 18 Firms, 125 Lawyers, $8.4B

The term "cautious optimism" may be about as cautious (and as literal) as you can get when it comes to M&A in 2024. But a survey of 200 multinational executives by Mergermarket and Norton Rose Fulbright suggests just that, even though nearly six in ten say their own appetite for M&A is likely to increase over the coming year. In fact, one in four say the overall market is likely to increase significantly. The Roundup's Claire Poole returns this week with a detailed examination of the report, along with the usual look at recently reported deals that involved Texas firms and Texas lawyers.

February 6, 2024 Claire Poole

CDT Roundup: 9 Deals, 9 Law Firms, 87 Lawyers, $8.6B

If M&A markets seemed slow, capital markets appeared dead. According to a study by PwC, a record year in 2021 has been followed by near silence. The CDT Roundup this week looks at the stats behind a precipitous drop in IPOs and some recent, long-overdue attention to SPACs by the SEC. All that and the usual roster of Texas-related transactions reported last week.

January 30, 2024 Allen Pusey

CDT Roundup: 14 Deals, 12 Firms, 109 Lawyers, $4B

Professional sports, once the domain of rich guys who made their money in steel or automobile dealerships, has become its own source of cross-industry partnerships, once-verboten relationships and even M&A. The CDT Roundup looks at how a couple of Texas billionaires and a South Texas bankruptcy are accelerating those changes — along with the lineup of last week's deals.

January 24, 2024 Allen Pusey

CDT Roundup: 17 Deals, 12 Firms, 256 Lawyers, $33.6B

As Sir Mix-A-Lot might note if he was writing about M&A instead hip-hop fundament, "We like big numbers and we cannot lie." As a result, we decided to continue our look at 2023's remarkable run of billion-dollar deals, and whether inflation inflated our numbers. That and the usual roster of transactions reported last week.

January 17, 2024 Allen Pusey

CDT Roundup: 8 Deals, 8 Firms, 84 Lawyers, $7.9B

Worldwide M&A values in 2023 reached $2.9 trillion, down 17 percent from 2022. U.S. M&A values were $1.4 trillion in 2023, down about 5 percent compared to the prior year — the slowest (and lowest) annual number in six years. According to a study by LSEG, a data and information firm, private equity-backed M&A fared even worse: a decline of 30 percent in value from 2022. Mega deals ($10 billion+) were down in value and volume. So, what went right? Maybe more than it seems. A closer look at the numbers reveal something far less grim; maybe even optimistic. Perhaps needless to say, CDT Roundup takes that closer look — along with the usual "roundup" of lawyers and firms who reported their deals last week.

January 9, 2024 Claire Poole

CDT Roundup: 17 Deals, 12 Firms, 99 Lawyers, $14.6B

Energy transition is proving itself more complicated than expected, and legacy energy more durable. Whether upstream or midstream, energy M&A in 2023 managed to endure the diverse pressures of war, politics, inflation and price volatility to emerge, as TPH&Co., the energy business of boutique bankers Perella Weinberg, describes it: "more important and dynamic than ever." This week's CDT Roundup looks at their interesting year-end reflections, along with 17 deals reported during the final week of the year, as well as the firms and lawyers who worked on them.

January 2, 2024 Claire Poole

CDT Roundup: 23 Deals, 13 Firms, 219 Lawyers, $4.2B

Want to know what 2024 will look like? Just take a hard look at 2023, according to many of the respondents to the Dallas Fed's quarterly energy survey. Buoyed by a belief that oil prices will remain more than $70 per barrel, even with depressed natural gas prices, energy producers in the Fed's Region 11 expect consolidations to continue in East and West Texas including a few blockbuster deals. That's what 2023 looked like. The CDT Roundup looks at the details of the Dallas Fed survey along with the usual list of lawyers and firms behind the 23 transactions reported during the next-to-last week of the year.

December 26, 2023 Allen Pusey & Claire Poole

CDT Roundup: 13 Deals, 13 Firms, 280 Lawyers, $16.4B

Oxy's back. With its $12 billion acquisition of CrownRock last week, Occidental Petroleum not only joined other energy giants in the great consolidation of Texas oil production, but in the process seems to have shaken off the burden of its nearly disastrous $57 billion absorption of Anadarko Petroleum in 2018. Still, some observers think some of the same risks of overcommitment — not to mention regulatory concerns — are lurking in even this more modest deal. The CDT Roundup looks at those concerns, as well as the other deals reported from Texas by 280 lawyers.

December 19, 2023 Claire Poole