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:

• Will Stripe IPO and turn the market?

• Husch Blackwell's $62 million bill

• Hogan Lovells is open to a potential merger

• A look at the MSG CEO's self-made posters

WILL STRIPE IPO AND TURN THE MARKET?

Probably not. But according to sources, Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison told employees yesterday that they have set a goal of either taking the company public or allowing employees to sell shares in a private-market transaction within the next 12 months.

This public timetable for a decision is the payments company's solution to solve an existential problem for employees. Certain employees have been at the company for nearly 10 years and hold large restricted stock unit grants. Those grants technically expire worthless if the company doesn't have a liquidity event or find another way for employees to sell their shares.

With an IPO or direct listing, Stripe would be able to make employees' shares liquid and allow them to sell. However, being profitable and valued extremely highly in private financing rounds, Stripe has not been eager to enter the public arena. Should Stripe decide to go public, sources claim that Stripe is more likely to pursue a direct listing, given that it doesn't have a need to raise additional capital.

Stripe is reportedly more likely to allow employees to sell shares in a private secondary offering and has hired Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan to survey interest from investors.

Stripe's announcement comes on the heels of a new report analyzing IPO and acquisition activity in VC-backed startups. The report (which created the chart included below) describes that while IPO activity is markedly low, acquisitions of VC-backed startups in recent years have been at all-time highs.

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ECON SNAPSHOT

The difference between special bonuses and layoffs

THE VERDICT

Arguing today's litigation news

Copying shoes. Nike filed a suit against Japanese fashion company A Bathing Ape (aka BAPE), alleging that many of BAPE's shoe designs are "near verbatim" copies of Nike's Air Force 1, Air Jordan 1, and Dunk sneakers and that BAPE has refused to stop infringing. Arnold & Porter is representing Nike.

Yahoos. US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap in the Eastern District of Texas instructed attorneys in a patent trial not to call the jurors "yahoos" or to reference "the the intelligence of the jury, the Court, the population of the Marshall Division, or the population of the Eastern District of Texas.” The defense attorney in the trial was attempting to tell the jury that the plaintiffs filed in Eastern Texas because "they think we are yahoos".

Front running deals. The FTC reportedly filed its antitrust suit seeking to block Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision at the time it did in December 2022 at least partly to front run a potential EU settlement of the Microsoft-Activision deal which would have allowed the takeover.

$62M firm bill. An arbitration panel unanimously determined that law firm Husch Blackwell must pay $62 million to an engineering firm due to one of its partner's misconduct. When Husch Blackwell partner Charles Renner's bid was rejected to represent a former engineering firm client vying for work on Kansas City's new airport, he got himself hired by the city to run the award process and provided the airport engineering contract to another engineering firm with which he also had a relationship.

THE DEAL

Wheelin' and dealin' today's corporate news

Activist suits up. Elliott Management, the activist investor which recently built up a multi-billion dollar position in Salesforce but hadn't made any public demands, is reportedly planning to nominate a slate of directors at the company setting up a future proxy battle.

Thank you for vaping. Tobacco companies Philip Morris International, Japan Tobacco Group and Altria Group are reportedly each in early discussions with e-cigarette maker Juul Labs about potentially acquiring the company. Altria, which owns 35% of Juul, reportedly valued Juul at $1 billion in October 2022, but Juul has faced significant regulatory pushback and litigation losses in the interim, likely lowering a potential valuation.

Pharmacy focus. Walgreens Boots Alliance is reportedly considering a sale of its pharmacy automation business iA, which may be sold for as much as $2 billion. The sales process could be kicked off as early as next month and rival healthcare firms and PE firms are considered the likely potential acquirers.

Notice of default. Bed Bath & Beyond disclosed that it received a notice of default from its lender JP Morgan, pushing the troubled company closer to a likely imminent bankruptcy filing. BB&B's JPM credit line was secured by the company's inventory; when the value of that collateral fell, the amount BB&B had already borrowed put BB&B outside of its limits and required a cash payment in order to avoid default, which was not paid.

Sports empire. US investment firm MSP Sports Capital is reportedly considering a minority investment in the Everton Football Club, which is in danger of being relegated out of the Premier League. MSP Sports Capital owns a number of other international soccer teams, the X Games and a minority stake in Formula 1’s McLaren Racing team.

BUSINESS OF THE FIRM

Lateral Moves:

• Current chief of the DOJ's San Francisco office Manish Kumar was promoted to become the DOJ antitrust division's acting head of criminal enforcement.

• Clifford Chance appointed partner Sharis Arnold Pozen to become its regional managing partner for the Americas.

• Venture capital firm Thrive Capital Management LLC, in the news this week for its share sale to several titans of industry, hired Kirkland partner Marian Fowler as general counsel.

Industry News:

• Up for merging. Hogan Lovells' CEO announced that he is seeking to grow the firm's presence in New York, Texas and California through organic means, but would be open to a merger with a firm with a large transactional presence in those locations. These remarks follow rumors at the end of 2022 about a potential merger with Shearman & Sterling.

• MSG update. Following Lookzy's interview yesterday with an attorney banned from Madison Square Garden, more public pressure has mounted on MSG's lawyer-banning policy and use of facial recognition technology. None of this was put to rest when MSG CEO James Dolan gave a TV interview yesterday in which he refused to back down and threatened the NY State Liquor Authority by potentially putting up self-made posters providing the NYSLA's CEO's contact information.

BOILERPLATE

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