DEAL & SUITS
Hayes, Michael Hurwitz, and Matt Scutari. (All
are in Washington, D.C.)
For seller General Electric Company
(Fairfield, Connecticut)
In-House:
At NBC Universal: general counsel Richard
Cotton, senior vice president–corporate and
transactions Scott Seeley, and vice president–
corporate and transactions Patricia Suh.
At GE: senior counsel–transactions Briggs
Tobin and corporate legal transactions and
finance counsel Dyan Gershman.
Debevoise & Plimpton:
M&A: Geoffrey Burgess, Michael Gillespie,
Kevin Rinker, Jeffrey Rosen, Kevin Schmidt,
and associates Oladipo Ashiru, William Chou,
Michael Diz, Piers Dryden, Amit Kataria,
Allison Lee, Finn O’Hegarty, Shelby Parnes,
Gail Steiner, and Gregg Young. Litigation:
Jyotin Hamid, David Rivkin, and associates
Julie Calderon Rizzo, Rosa Castello, and
Young Lee. Tax: Gary Friedman, David
Schnabel, counsel Rafael Kariyev, and
associate Erin Cleary. (All are in New York
except for Burgess, Dryden, O’Hegarty, and
Young, who are in London.)
Weil, Gotshal & Manges:
M&A: Howard Chatzinoff, R. Jay Tabor,
and associates Jaclyn Cohen and Gavin
Westerman. Intellectual property:
Charan Sandhu and associate Caroline
Geiger. Employee benefits and executive
compensation: Michael Kam. Finance:
Angela Fontana and Andrew Yoon. Tax:
Kenneth Heitner and associate Michael
Breidenbach. (All are in New York except for
Tabor and Fontana, who are in Dallas.)
Arnold & Porter:
Antitrust: William Baer and Deborah
Feinstein. E. U. competition: Silvio Cappellari
and Marleen Van Kerckhove. (Baer and
Feinstein are in Washington, D.C. Cappellari and
Van Kerckhove are in Brussels.)
Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel:
Telecommunications: Michael Kellogg. (He
is in Washington, D. C.)
Richards, Layton & Finger:
Corporate: Mark Gentile and Elisa Erlenbach
Maas. ( They are in Wilmington.)
For seller Vivendi SA (Paris)
In-House:
General counsel Jean-Francois Dubos, head
of legal department Frederic Crepin, deputy
general counsel George Bushnell III, and
corporate counsel Brian Zuro.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher:
M&A: Ruth Fisher, Dennis Friedman, and
associates Sheera Jacobs and Melissa Toomey.
Tax: Hatef Behnia and associates Afshin
Beyzaee and Robert Urband. Employee
benefits and executive compensation: Sean
Feller. Antitrust: Daniel Swanson, of counsel
Malcolm “Sandy” Pfunder, and associate Jay
Srinivasan. (All are in Los Angeles except for
Friedman, Jacobs, and Toomey, who are in New
York, and Pfunder, who is in Washington, D.C.)
Thompson Hine:
Telecommunications: Barry Friedman. (He is
in Washington, D. C.) —DAVID MARCUS
*
EXXON MOBIL
XTO
Exxon Mobil Corporation agreed to
pay $31 billion in stock and assume
another $10 billion in debt to acquire
XTO Energy Inc. in a deal announced
December 14.
Exxon would pay 0.7098 common
shares for each XTO common share.
Based on the companies’ December
11 closing prices, the deal values XTO
shares at $51.69 each, a 25 percent premium. The acquisition would give Exxon
control over XTO’s 45 trillion cubic feet
of gas, including shale gas, tight gas,
coal bed methane, and shale oil.
The parties hope to close the deal in
the second quarter pending approvals
from regulators and XTO shareholders.
With a market capitalization of more
than $300 billion, Exxon Mobil is large
enough that its shareholders do not get
a vote on the deal.
For acquiror Exxon Mobil Corporation
(Irving, Texas)
In-House:
General counsel Charles Matthews, Jr., assistant
general counsel Randall Ebner, assistant general
counsel–compliance John O’Hern, and senior
counsel James Earl Parsons.
Davis Polk & Wardwell:
M&A: George Bason, Jr., Louis Goldberg,
Arthur Golden, and associates William Chudd
and Brian Snyder. Tax: Avishai Shachar
and associate Joshua Ruland. Employee
compensation and executive benefits:
Edmond FitzGerald and associate Andrew
Blau. Environmental: Gail Flesher. (All are in
New York.)
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton:
E.U. competition: Robbert Snelders and
associates Ann Sofie Cloots and Aart Loubert.
(All are in Brussels.)
Covington & Burling:
Antitrust: Deborah Garza and James
O’Connell. (Both are in Washington, D. C.)
Weil, Gotshal & Manges:
Antitrust: Steven Newborn, Laura Wilkinson,
and counsel John Sipple, Jr. (All are in
Washington, D.C.)
For target XTO Energy Inc. (Fort Worth)
In-House:
General counsel Frank McDonald, associate
general counsel Kathy Cox, and associate
general counsel–land and acquisitions Warren
Ludlow.
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom:
M&A: Roger Aaron, Stephen Arcano, and
Kenneth Wolff. Executive compensation and
benefits: Stuart Alperin. Antitrust: Ian John
and Neal Stoll. Tax: David Rievman. (All are in
New York.) —D.M.
*
COBELL V.
SALAZAR
The U.S. government agreed on December 7 to pay $3.4 billion to resolve a
lengthy legal battle over claims that the
U.S. Department of the Interior cheated
nearly a half-million Native Americans
out of royalties owed them under gov-ernment-managed land trust accounts.
It is the largest class action settlement
ever against the government. The case
generated more than 3,600 docket filings
and 11 appellate decisions.
The dispute has its roots in an 1887
act of Congress establishing the Indian
Trust. Under the trust, individual Native
Americans were granted portions of
land. The parcels were then placed under
government control, in return for which
the government promised to pay the
individuals royalties for oil, mineral, and
other leases. But the Native American
trust holders alleged that they received
little, while the government grossly mismanaged the process. The 1996 suit, filed
in federal district court in Washington,
D.C., claimed that the trust holders were
collectively owed more than $40 billion.
In 1999 the district court judge held
