Welcome to Lookzy.  Lookzy: all your daily legal news in less than 0.1 billable hours.  Litigation, deals, lateral moves and industry moves; we cover it all. 

In today's Lookzy:

• Binance walks away from FTX acquisition

• Adidas setting up for a Yeezy fight

• How Dentons' operating structure lost it millions

• Cooley lays off corporate associates

FTX ACQUISITION UPDATE: IT GETS WORSE

Yesterday was a bad day for crypto. 

But there was still some hope: Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, seemed poised to save its failing rival, FTX, as it signed a non-binding LOI to acquire it.  

Today was a worse day for crypto.  Here are the highlights:

Binance walked away from the FTX acquisition.  They noted, after doing some cursory diligence, that "the issues are beyond our control or ability to help".  Yikes.  

The majority of FTX's legal and compliance teams quit.  Always a good sign.  

Leaks and rumors suggested that FTX would need to raise as much as $10 billion to avoid bankruptcy.  With Binance so publicly backing out, who would commit such vast sums now?

Sequoia, the fabled VC fund, informed its LPs that it was marking its investment in FTX to zero.  Sequoia invested over $200 million across several funds.  Insight Partners, Paradigm, Lightspeed, Blackrock and others invested hundreds of millions.  Even Tom Brady and Giselle apparently yolo'd their nest egg.  Will that simplify the divorce proceedings?

SBF, the boy-genius FTX and Alameda Research founder rubbing elbows with the likes of Bill Clinton and celebrities, had his wealth decline nearly 94%, from over $15.6 billion to less than $990 million.  This represented the largest one day drop for a billionaire ever.  

Alameda Research, the semi-affiliated hedge fund that presumably blew up and served as the driving force behind this mess, now appears to be liquidating everything according to on-chain data.  Earlier reports suggested that FTX and Alameda VC arms were offloading SAFTs (simple agreements for future tokens) at 30 cents on the dollar.  What's the definition of a fraudulent conveyance?

The SEC, CFTC and DOJ all are reportedly investigating FTX and its affiliated entities.  They're looking into whether FTX.com mishandled customer funds, FTX.com's relationship with FTX.US and Alameda Research, securities law violations and other potential crimes and violations.  

FTX was valued at $32.5 billion early this year.  It made $1 billion in revenue and $250 million in operating income in 2021.  SBF was the world's youngest billionaire.  Where did the cash go?

ECON SNAPSHOT

The difference between special bonuses and layoffs.

Oof.

THE VERDICT

Arguing today's litigation news

Adidas  v. Ye.  "Adidas stressed that it retained IP and design rights to Yeezy products that had not yet hit the market", according to the NYT, and plans to continue selling them outside the Yeezy brand in what appears to be a future IP fight with Ye. 

AirPods IP.  Apple and Pinn settle their outstanding patent litigation days before jury selection set to begin over a fight related to AirPods technology.

Uber <3 arbitration.  Uber appears poised to win in front of a US appeals court that its drivers are not engaged in interstate commerce and therefore must arbitrate their wage claims.

Swiss verein model.  Dentons US failed to reverse a $32 million malpractice verdict because the Ohio Supreme Court declined to reconsider an earlier decision in a patent case.  The verdict relates to a conflict of interest claim stemming from Dentons' federated operating structure.  

Billion $ defamation.  A DC federal judge rejected One America News Network's (OANN) motion to dismiss Dominion Voting System's Inc.'s $1.6 billion defamation suit.

Patent troll.  A US appeals court ruled in favor of Fortress Investment Group in Intel Corp's antitrust suit against Fortress for allegedly stockpiling patents and threatening tech companies with them.

International Shoe.  SCOTUS case Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway may affect where plaintiffs can bring personal injury suits against corporations registered to do business.

THE DEAL

Wheelin' and dealin' today's corporate news

Non-alcoholic drinks.  Keurig Dr Pepper is investing $50 million into Athletic Brewing, a nonalcoholic beer company, as part of a $75 million round; expect more activity in this high-growth space. 

Everything is fintech.  Goldman Sachs reportedly has considered acquiring payment-technology companies to expand its credit card business. 

Electric cars are expensive.  Lucid, the electric car company, announced that it plans to raise up to $1.5 billion in additional equity, including $900 million from its largest existing investor, the Saudi public wealth fund.  Lucid reported a net loss of $530 million for the third quarter.  

Grocery M&A.  A DC federal judge declined to block Albertsons' planned $4 billion dividend payment, determining that it is separate from Kroger's proposed $24.6 billion acquisition of the company.

BUSINESS OF THE FIRM

Firm Moves: 

• Polsinelli PC elected 28 new "shareholders".

• Jenner & Block hired Andrianna Kastanek, who most recently served as chief of appeals for the criminal division of the Northern District of Illinois U.S. Attorney's Office.

• Alyssa Harvey Dawson, formerly of Gusto, joined Hubspot as its new chief legal officer.

Industry News:

• Cooley confirms layoffs: an unspecified number of corporate associates have been laid off from the firm, many of which were junior associates in the Bay Area. Although Cooley attempted to paint these terminations as performance-related, multiple sources described them as "layoffs". The layoffs come on the heels of extensive lateral hiring during the pandemic and dramatic slowdowns in startup financings and other corporate deal work. See here for our previous discussion of firm layoffs and how you can try to protect yourself.

• Venable is opening offices in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and Tampa through a planned combination with Genovese Joblove & Battista, a 30-lawyer Florida-based firm.

• US courts begin posting judge's stock and other financial disclosures online.

• Maryland's top court will be renamed from the Maryland Court of Appeals to the Maryland Supreme Court, and its members will now be known as Justices, following voter approval of a constitutional amendment.

BOILERPLATE

Alright, back to billing.  That's all, folks!