Budweiser Brewing Co. APAC Ltd. (“Budweiser Asia”), made an impressive entrance into the Hong Kong market last week. Budweiser Asia, a unit of Anheuser-Busch InBev (“AB InBev”), debuted in the new market on September 30, 2019, raising $5 billion for the world’s largest brewer in this share sale. (Wang, Wall Street Journal) Budweiser Asia’s performance claims the second-largest initial public offering in the world this year, trailing Uber Technologies Inc., who raised $8.1 billion and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. (Wang, Wall Street Journal)
Read MorePhone carrier giants Sprint and T-Mobile announced an unprecedented merger in the spring of 2018. The merger would create a $146 billion powerhouse company under the T-Mobile name. (Taylor Soper, GeekWire). As of now, T-Mobile and Sprint are the third and fourth-largest carriers in the U.S., just behind AT&T and Verizon. Id. However, the Department of Justice (DOJ) initially wasn’t sold and filed suit to block the merger. (U.S. D.O.J. Compl. 3. July 26, 2019). A deal of this size raises fair market and antitrust concerns for both the D.O.J. and Federal Communications Commission (F.C.C.) and is dependent on the regulators’ approval. (Taylor Soper, GeekWire).
Read MoreSince the early 1990s, the legalization of marijuana has been a prominent subject in American legislation. (Scott C. Martin, TIME) As public support for legalization has grown, the laws affecting cannabis and marijuana related businesses have been difficult to navigate. (Hilary Sledge-Sarnor, Business Law Today) These difficulties are largely attributed to a number of inconsistencies between federal and state law, which make it increasingly difficult to determine what is legal in regard to marijuana-related activity. (Id.) As of June 25, 2019, thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have passed laws legalizing marijuana, with eleven explicitly regulating marijuana for recreational use. (GOVERNING)
Read MoreCalifornia-based GoodRx Inc. (“GoodRx”), an online and mobile app marketplace for discounts on prescription drugs, has acquired San Francisco-based telemedicine startup HeyDoctor LLC (“HeyDoctor”), an online platform that provides treatment, prescriptions, and lab tests from doctors for routine medical care. (Brown, Bloomberg; LaRock Business Insider). The combined company enables GoodRx to position itself solidly in the virtual health care market by providing HeyDoctor’s telemedical services to its vast network of loyal consumers.
Read MoreSenators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT), of the Senate Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, recently launched a bipartisan probe into potential antitrust abuses by 5 members of Big Tech (Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Amazon). (Victoria Graham, Bloomberg Law). These companies have exhibited a penchant for buying startup companies whose technology could potentially compete against their own or using “platform privilege” to crush competitors who refuse to be bought. This article identifies examples of the anti-competitive behavior in question, discusses the current legislative efforts being pursued to regulate Big Tech and explores economic arguments that support stronger regulation.
Read MoreOn November 5, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) proposed amendments to Rule 14a-8 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), which governs the shareholder proposal process. The proposed amendments, which the SEC has said are meant to modernize the rules that have not been significantly updated since 1954 (SEC Press Release, SEC Proposes Amendments to Modernize Shareholder Proposal Rule), have the potential to limit activism by smaller shareholders.
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