Shearman & Sterling is advising Raytheon on the sale of its Military Airborne Radios business to BAE Systems.

Shearman & Sterling advised Société Générale in connection with the signing of an agreement to sell SG Finans AS, its equipment finance and factoring activities in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, to Nordea Finance, the asset based finance and factoring arm of Nordea Bank.

Shearman & Sterling advised on the antitrust aspects of ViacomCBS’s agreement to acquire a 49 percent stake in global film and television studio Miramax, a unit of beIN Media Group. The transaction gives ViacomCBS access to Miramax’s film library while offering Miramax access to ViacomCBS’s global distribution network.

Counsel Sara Ashall (Brussels-Antitrust) will speak at the 1st International Mergers Conference organized by Concurrences in London on February 19, 2020. Sara will participate in the panel “Merger Hotchpotch - Enforcement and Procedure : Due Diligence, Gun jumping, Due Process, Remedies”.

Partner James Webber (London-Antitrust) will speak at the Global Competition Review (GCR) Live 9th Annual Antitrust Law Leaders Forum held in Miami on February 7-8, 2020. James will participate on the panel “Mergers: Magical Thinking: Considering Modern Theories of Harm,” which will consider how to articulate theories of harm in merger reviews before different triers of fact, as sophisticated economic projections of prices, output and leverage are debated, in contrast to traditional economic approaches.

Partner James Webber (London-Antitrust) will speak at the IFLR European In-House Counsel Summit in London on February 4, 2020. James will moderate the panel on “Interacting with Regulators.” This panel will provide in-depth insight into a few key issues such as dealing with the global trend of increasing regulatory interventions and best practices for responding to investigations. The panelists also include Claire Larbey, General Counsel at Trowers & Hamlins, Julie Varcoe-Cocks, Associate General Counsel at Serco and Peter Tyson, Brexit Programme Director at Standard Life Assurance.

On Friday, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) released joint draft Vertical Merger Guidelines (“Guidelines”) for public comment. This much anticipated revision to the Guidelines, which had not been updated in more than 35 years, outlines how the FTC and DOJ evaluate whether vertical mergers violate the federal antitrust laws. The Guidelines are notable both because they strike a more aggressive stance towards vertical mergers than prior guidance, and in that the two Democratic FTC Commissioners abstained from voting on the Guidelines, which they did not think were aggressive enough. The release of these Guidelines reinforce that vertical merger enforcement will continue to be a priority for both the FTC and DOJ.

Partner Ben Gris (Washington, D.C.-Antitrust) and counsel Sara Ashall (Brussels-Antitrust) have authored the chapter “European Union and United States: Antitrust and Data” in the GDR Insight Handbook 2020. The chapter provides an overview of the current activities of the EU and U.S. regulators in cases at the intersection of competition law and data issues.

Partners Matthew Readings (London-Antitrust) and Elvira Aliende Rodriguez (Brussels-Antitrust); counsel Mathias Stöcker (Frankfurt-Antitrust); and associates Agostino Bignardi (Brussels-Antitrust) and Simon Thexton (London-Antitrust) authored various chapters of the International Comparative Legal Guide to: Cartels & Leniency 2020. As well as authoring various chapters, Matthew and Elvira were also contributing editors for the 2020 edition.