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

Welcome to Lookzy. In today's Lookzy:

• The past and future state of corporate dealmaking

• SBF's associates plead guilty

• A second Swiftie attack on Ticketmaster and Congress gets involved

• Justin Bieber looks to sell his music rights

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe below.

WILL DEALMAKING IMPROVE IN 2023?

2022 has been a challenging year for dealmaking. After seeing $5.9 trillion worth of M&A occur in 2021, total M&A value has fallen 37% percent in 2022 to $3.66 trillion. In Q4 2022 alone, global M&A has contracted 56%, led by significant drops in PE activity.

In addition, 2022 is the worst year for IPOs since 1990, with only 74 companies raising an aggregate of just $8 billion in the US so far.

Will 2023 be any better? It seems likely. Strategic acquisitions and the capital markets are where we are likely to start seeing an uptrend come Q2 2022.

"Despite the macro and geopolitical environment, well-capitalized strategics are still going to do deals that are important for their long-term business strategy," said Ivan Farman, co-head of global M&A at Bank of America.

"It is likely that we are going to see significant M&A activity in the U.S. in 2023; not only U.S. companies making acquisitions, but also European and other international buyers making acquisitions in the U.S.," said Frank Aquila of Sullivan & Cromwell.

On the capital markets front, several tech companies could actually be the ones to help jolt the IPO market back to life. Instacart, Databricks and Arm are all rumored to be targeting early 2023 to join the public markets. Why them? All at around 10 years old, it's time they finally obtain liquidity for long-waiting employees and shareholders.

ECON SNAPSHOT

The difference between special bonuses and layoffs.

THE VERDICT

Arguing today's litigation news

FTC catchup. While Sam Bankman-Fried has now been extradited to US custody, two of his top associates, Caroline Ellison (formerly CEO of Alameda Research, SBF's hedge fund) and Gary Wang (formerly CTO of FTX), both pleaded guilty in SDNY to charges including wire fraud, commodities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Caroline Ellison (represented by WilmerHale) pleaded guilty to seven charges and faces a maximum sentence of 110 years. Gary Wang (reportedly represented by Fried Frank) pleaded guilty to four charges and faces up to 50 years. The SEC charged both individuals as well.

Swifties attack. A Taylor Swift fan who had purchased a ticket to Swift's upcoming tour sued Live Nation Entertainment, the Ticketmaster parent company in federal court in LA seeking class action status, claiming violations of consumer protection and antitrust law. Congress is now also set to hold hearings on competition in the ticket industry.

Fake data. A group of USC online program students sued USC in a proposed class action, claiming that USC heavily promoted itself using falsified data and rankings. A previous investigation into USC's rankings by Jones Day established that a former USC dean had never submitted online program data to the US News and World Report and had falsified other data.

Draining 401(k)s. Evan Greebel, who allegedly helped Martin Shkreli defraud investors while Greebel was at Katten Muchin Rosenman and was later ordered to pay a significant amount in restitution, has petitioned SCOTUS seeking to avoid his law firm retirement accounts from being garnished to pay down the restitution amount. Greebel is being represented by Gibson Dunn.

Blank check. A Virginia public school system is facing criticism and adjusting its oversight procedures an audit revealed it allowed outside counsel to rack up more than $9 million in legal fees, including more than $6 million for Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP.

THE DEAL

Wheelin' and dealin' today's corporate news

Bieber M&A. Justin Bieber is reportedly nearing a deal to sell his music rights to Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital for around $200 million.

Streaming wars. After Apple backed out, YouTube is reportedly in advanced talks to buy the rights to stream the NFL's Sunday Ticket games in a deal worth around $2 billion per year.

AMC adventures. AMC Theaters disclosed that it had held discussions with lenders of bankrupt theater company Cineworld about potentially acquiring some or all of its theaters, but a decline in AMC's 'APE' (preferred equity) shares has made the deal uneconomical.

Self-driving deal. Magna International, a Canadian auto parts producer, agreed to purchase Veoneer's Active Safety business from PE firm SSW Partners for $1.53 billion in cash.

Big year. Ken Griffith's Citadel hedge fund expects to return about $7 billion in profits to its clients this year, after being up more than 32% through November. This will be the largest amount of money returned to investors by Citadel.

BUSINESS OF THE FIRM

Lateral Moves:

• K&L Gates hired partner Martha Groves Pugh from McDermott.

• Former energy counsel to the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce Tyler O'Connor is returning to Crowell & Moring as a partner.

• ArentFox Schiff hired partner Huhnsik Chung.

• Baker McKenzie hired partners Usman Sheikh and Michael Garellek and elected 31 new partners.

Industry News:

• Hogan Lovells and Shearman & Sterling both acknowledged, but refused to confirm or deny, reports that they were in preliminary merger talks.

• Quarles & Brady, now just "Quarles", announced it will merge with the 30-lawyer firm Paul, Plevin, Sullivan & Connaughton, which is based in San Diego and focuses on management-side labor and employment matters.

• Still waiting for your bonus? Check out the Lookzy Reverse Bonus Tracker for timely updates to who's announced and who's left. Did your firm just announce? Reply to this email and we can update.

BOILERPLATE

Enjoy this newsletter? We'd be grateful if you forward it to a friend or colleague.Hate this newsletter? Share this newsletter with the partner/senior associate/staffer you can't stand.

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