The former president filed a request for a preliminary injunction against the social media giant in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. He argued that Twitter was “coerced” by members of the US Congress to suspend his account. 

In January, Twitter and several other social media giants removed Trump from their platforms following the Capitol riots which led to the death of five people. The attack by Trump’s supporters was followed up by a speech by the former president in which he reiterated false claims that his election loss in November was caused by widespread fraud.  

At the time of removing Trump’s account, Twitter said his tweets had violated its policy barring the "glorification of violence" and were “highly likely” to encourage people to replicate what had happened in the Capitol riots. 

Before his account was suspended, Trump had over 88 million followers on Twitter.

David Brown, who filed the lawsuit, is jointly employed by the Alphabet Inc unit and security company Allied Universal. Brown is seeking unspecified monetary damages for alleged physical and emotional harassment at Google’s LA offices based on both his race and sexual orientation. The suit claims the harassment took place between 2014 and last year. 

Brown’s supervisor, Henry Linares, allegedly accounted for much of the harassment, including “grabbing him on the buttocks, kicking him in the groin, throwing him through a window head first and brutally grabbing his nipples." According to the filing, Linares was fired for other reasons this year. 

Over a series of messages last year regarding items missing from Google’s offices, Google's senior manager for global community operations, Rus Rossini, sent Linares the message “strip searches for all.” According to the lawsuit and a screenshot of the exchange seen by Reuters, the supervisor replied, "David is going to love that," with Rossini then saying, "Tell David to bend over." The supervisor, who shared the screenshot with Brown, responded, "hahah I'll tell him you said Hellooo."

Following the death of George Floyd last year, many major companies stepped up efforts to create more inclusive and safe workplaces, including Google. However, employees at Google, including over 2,000 who signed an open letter on the issue back in April, have said the tech giant fails to sufficiently hold perpetrators of racism and bullying to account. 

The newly acquired debt facility is intended to help Fresh Thinking Capital to further grow its loan book and provide funding to its SME clients.

Fresh Thinking Capital is a Leeds-based company that provides short-term secured business loans to UK SMEs seeking prompt financing. The firm was founded in 2018 by Melanie Hird and Andrew Walls and has lent more than £50 million to almost 40 businesses. Melanie Hird and Oliver Bates, private debt manager at Foresight, both lauded the success of the deal.

Foresight Group was advised by Cadence Advisory on security and portfolio due diligence, SC Advisory Services on financial due diligence, Shakespeare Martineau on legal due diligence, and KryptoKloud on cyber due diligence.

Phil Dine and Andrea Unwin from Clarion’s banking team provided legal advice to Fresh Thinking Capital. Fresh Thinking Capital was advised by Clarion, The Duncan Chartered Accountants and Altenburg Advisory on legal matters, accounting and corporate finance respectively.

Frigorífico Concepción, Paraguay’s second-largest meat producer and exporter, has returned to the international market with a debt issue for $300 million. The bonds, guaranteed by its Bolivian subsidiary Frigorífico BFC, registered a coupon of 7.7% and mature in 2028. The company also launched a simultaneous offer to purchase its senior secured notes with a coupon of 10.25% and maturing in 2025 for $155.7 million of an outstanding capital of $161 million. The company obtained the consent of 96.71% of bondholders to execute the proposed amendments to the notes. Both operations concluded on 21 July 2021.

Asunción-based Estudio Jurídico Gross Brown and New York-based Milbank advised BofA Securities as Sole Book-Runner and manager in the issuance of the new bonds under Rule A and Regulation S of the United States, and dealer manager as in the repurchase. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised the issuer and PPO Abogados advised the guarantor, Frigorifico BFC.

The Gross Brown team was led by partner Sigfrido Gross-Brown, senior associate Mauricio Salgueiro, and junior associate Kamila Gimenez. The practice areas involved were capital markets, corporate & tax, and antitrust.

Raiffeisen Bank International AG has acquired Credit Agricole Bank Serbia a.d. Novi Sad and its subsidiary CA Leasing Serbia from Credit Agricole S.A. The closing of the transaction, which remains subject to customary regulatory and competition clearances, is expected to take place in Q1 of 2022.

Marić, Mališić & Dostanić acted as legal advisor to Credit Agricole SA during the sale. The team was led by managing partner Ana Marić and comprised partners Rastko Mališić and Oliver Radosavljević, as well as lawyers Uroš Žigić and Marina Živanović. Aside from the principal M&A aspect of their role, the team also also covered regulatory, competition and labour issues for the seller and provided full transactional support in all phases of the deal. D’Ornano Partners also advised Credit Agricole.

Raiffeisen Bank was advised by AP Legal and CMS. The AP Legal team was headed by partner Aleksandar Preradovic and included senior associates Jovan Cirkovic and Dusan Preradovic and consultant Maja Stojiljkovic. The CMS team was led by London partner Eva Talmacsi.

Pythagoras Communications is a Berkshire-based firm that specialises in professional services using Microsoft technology platforms such as Azure, Dynamics 365, SharePoint and the Power Platform.

The Moorcrofts team was led by partner Will Pearce (corporate) and comprised partners Tim Astley (commercial), Julia Ferguson (property) and Matt Jenkin (employment), associate Adam Forder (corporate) and solicitor Heather Stewart (corporate).

“We are thrilled to have advised Julian and Emma Stone and the shareholders of Pythagoras Communications on their sale of such a fast-growing and well-established business to one of the most respected firms in the UK,” said Pearce.

Pythagoras Communications founder Julian Stone also lauded the deal. “We were delighted to work with Moorcrofts, who have been appointed as our corporate and commercial legal team since 2011,” he said.

DLA Piper acted for EY.

GSK Stockmann advised Edeka Südwest on the sale of more than 400 in-store bakeries in Saarland, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg to local merchants. As part of this transaction, the Edeka companies K&U and Bäckerhaus Ecker concluded a reconciliation of interests and a social plan with employee representatives. A collective wage agreement is also part of the package.

The K&U bakery is based in Offenburg. Via the intermediate company Bäckerbub, it belongs to the Edeka Südwest group of companies. The Hans Ecker bakery (whose branch network is mainly in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland) has also been part of this network since 2010, whose branch network is mainly in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. Explaining the move, Edeka commented that the in-store bakeries had incurred increasing losses in recent years, which had worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to concluding the aforementioned reconciliation of interests and a social plan, the approximately 3,000 employees working at the sold bakeries will receive 2.3% increase to wages and salaries from 1 August. From 1 January 2022, there will be a further 2.3% increase.

The Argentina-based Werthein Group acquired Vrio, a business unit of US media giant AT&T. Vrio provides live and on-demand digital entertainment services in 4K format for 10.3 million subscribers across 11 countries through Directv Latin America, SKY Brasil and Directv GO. The company’s assets are made up of satellites and transmission centres, and it has 9,000 employees.

This deal does not include Vrio’s broadband business in Colombia or AT&T’s stake in SKY México. The total cost of the negotiation was not disclosed, but AT&T reported losses of $4.6 billion for the asset under negotiation, $2.1 billion of which was accounted for by foreign currency translation adjustments. AT&T will continue to support Werthein Group in the context of billing, infrastructure and software over a period of between one and three years. For Werthein Group, the deal represents its return to the telecommunications business, in which it formerly participated through Telecom Argentina. The transaction, which remains subject to customary conditions, is expected to close in early 2022.

AT&T was advised on the transaction by Sullivan & Cromwell. The buyer was advised by a range of firms including Skadden; Bruchou, Fernández Madero & Lombardi; Demarest Advogados; Carey; Rodrigo, Elías & Medrano Abogados; Posse Herrera Ruiz; Bustamante & Bustamante; D’Empaire, BSZE; Chancery Chambers; Guyer & Regules, and Pollonais, Blanc, de la Bastide & Jacelon.

The Pollonais, Blanc, de le Bastide & Jacelon team was led by Associate Ranjana Rambachan who acted as Legal Counsel for conducting the due diligence, advising on and filing of regulatory applications, general areas of corporate and commercial and intellectual property advice and all other areas of legal advice associated with the transaction in Trinidad and Tobago.

GlaxoSmithKline has sold its R&D Center, other properties, and production facilities to Aptuit, a pharmaceutical company of the German group Evotec, to which in 2010 the R&D Center had been granted on loan as part of a complex industrial reorganization that involved the two groups and numerous companies based in USA, UK, Italy and Germany.

Aptuit was assisted by Macchi di Cellere Gangemi partner Simone Rossi, with associates Maria Giulia Sperotto and Roberta Pantaleoni, for the legal aspects.

Aptuit will be able to further expand the facility, update and increase utilities and ensure the future sustainability of research and development activities on site.

Campbells acted as British Virgin Islands legal counsel to ADM Capital on its convertible loan facility to Square Yards, India’s largest integrated real estate platform. Linklaters Singapore also advised on the deal.

ADM Capital is an investment management firm which specialises in investing in dysfunctional markets. The firm holds a 20-year track record in the Asia-Pacific region and is widely regarded as a reliable and trusted source of alternative finance. ADM Capital manages a range of innovative structures crafted to suit various investor requirements and provide flexible capital solutions to SMEs in Asia.