The European Commission recently published a new Competition Policy Brief that classifies certain agreements related to labor markets as serious antitrust infringements.
It is essential for companies with workforces in the European Union to educate their human resources and recruiting departments on what constitutes an antitrust infringement. Further, no-poach agreements used in connection with M&A due diligence and negotiations, cooperation agreements, or joint venture situations should also be reviewed in detail to ensure they do not go beyond what is permitted.
Companies enter into merger & acquisition (M&A) deals for a range of reasons, but how employees are treated once a deal closes depends largely on the buyer’s deal strategy. Often the buyer signs a deal under the promise that the acquired business’ employees will continue to receive rewards at deal close that are comparable to those they received before, at least for a specified period of time. But why include such comparability provisions in deal terms given that they appear to restrict the buyer? What do these provisions typically cover? And what are best practices?
Willis Tower Watson recently tapped law firms with leading M&A advisory teams, including McDermott’s Carole Spink, to dig into the answers.
A significant issue facing many business owners is the impact of underfunded multiemployer pension plans. This is most common, but not exclusive to, unionized businesses. McDermott Partner and Global Head of the Firm’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice Group Todd Solomon joins Domenic Rinaldi, owner and managing partner of Sun Acquisitions, for a recent episode of the M&A Unplugged Podcast to talk about multiemployer pension plans and discuss proactive steps owners can take to get ahead of future issues regarding pension participants.
ESOPs have long provided an exit strategy for owners of privately held businesses and a platform for management buyouts. Mergers and acquisition (M&A) advisors increasingly look to leveraged ESOPs to accomplish both conventional stock and asset acquisitions.
Once an ESOP company decides to pursue an acquisition opportunity, it will generally structure in one of three ways. As more fully described in the following article, the acquiring company will (1) buy the stock or the assets of the target division or company; (2) merge with the target; or (3) have the target create a new ESOP, sell the target to the newly created ESOP, and then merge the ESOP that purchased the target with the acquiring company’s existing ESOP.