Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
SpaceX said in a social media post that it has an option to acquire Cursor later this year for $60 billion, "or pay $10 billion for our work together.” That work is aimed at creating “the world’s best coding and knowledge work AI.”
Gibson Dunn advised SpaceX, while Kirkland advised Cursor.
The CDT Roundup saw 11 deals reported for the week ended April 4 with a total valuation of nearly $33 billion. The prior week had 13 deals reported with a total value of $10.7 billion, while a year ago at this time there were 19 deals valued at $27.76 billion.
The bulk of the week’s value derives from a $29.1 billion megamerger between two food distribution giants, Sysco and Jetro Restaurant Depot.
But the most interesting may be the much smaller acquisition — finally — of The Container Store by Beyond, Inc., better known by its pre-bankruptcy moniker Bed Bath & Beyond.
That and more in this edition of CDT Roundup.
ExxonMobil’s shareholders are being asked to cast a vote this May that they may not fully understand. The company’s board has unanimously recommended moving its state of incorporation from New Jersey to Texas, framing the change as a step toward “maximizing shareholder value.” That framing is misleading. What the reincorporation actually does is place ExxonMobil under a body of Texas corporate law that gives the board sweeping authority to restrict shareholder rights at any time, through a simple bylaw amendment, without asking shareholders for permission. Shareholders are being invited to approve a transaction that hands the board the keys to a governance regime that those same shareholders may one day wish they had never unlocked.
For the week ended March 21, the CDT Roundup saw 11 deals with a total reported value of about $7.5 billion, mostly attributable to Constellation Energy shedding some PJM assets to LS Power for $5 billion. A Houston energy services company leaped up in the supply chain, acquiring an Irving energy company and 30 turbine delivery slots; a U.K. hyperscaler bought a power company in order to build one of the world's largest AI factories in West Virginia; two blank check companies issued IPOs in search of "disruptive technology companies" and "robotics, electric vehicles, drones, unmanned aerial systems and fintech" firms. That and more in this edition of CDT Roundup.
ExxonMobil announced Tuesday that its board seeks shareholder approval to change the company’s legal permanent home to Texas from New Jersey.
Gibson Dunn advised the company with a team led by Houston partners Gerry Spedale, Hillary Holmes and Tull Florey, as well as Washington, D.C., partner Ronald Mueller. Jeff Taylor is Exxon's general counsel.
The rapid expansion of AI is creating a “super cycle” in data centers, combining headline megadeals with a powerful but less visible middle‑market M&A surge in specialized infrastructure and services. Investors are racing to build and acquire hyperscale facilities, while private equity sponsors increasingly target mission‑critical providers in areas such as cooling, electrical, HVAC, plumbing and more to keep data centers humming around the clock. Legal advisors and their financial counterparts report increasingly sophisticated deal structures (and widely available capital) to support expansion and acquisitions.
For the week ended March 7, the CDT Roundup saw 13 deals with a total reported value of about $48.1 billion. Thanks to a $33.4 billion take-private deal for yet another power provider, that's better than the 11-deal $7.3 billion clocked the week prior. And it's far better than the seven-deal $2.2 billion week reported this time last year. That and more in this edition of CDT Roundup.
Following the post-strike AI provisions negotiated by SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America, the entertainment industry is entering a new phase of grappling with artificial intelligence. Performers and writers demanded meaningful limits on the use of AI to replicate their voices, likenesses and performances and now the burden shifts to lawyers to operationalize them with clarity and foresight. Updating contract templates to include boilerplate AI clauses is the easy part; the real challenge is drafting for a technology that is moving faster than the law can keep up with.
For the week ended Feb. 21, the CDT Roundup saw 10 deals reported with a total value of about $7.1 billion. That's down from both the prior week's 14 for $20.5 billion and the 17 deals this time last year for $12.1 billion. That and more in this edition of CDT Roundup.
In this Q&A, Foster discusses the challenges of talent attraction and integration in the super competitive Texas legal market, offers a glimpse into what he is seeing in his private equity practice, and shares career advice for young lawyers.
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