Jones Day ranks #1 in M&A for tenth year in a row
Jones Day ranked #1 globally in M&A league tables for year-end 2009, maintaining a position it has held for 37 consecutive quarters. The Firm also ranked #1 in France, Russia, and the U.K., as well as in the U.S.

Jones Day adds partners in San Diego and Singapore
We're pleased to welcome back Dennis Barsky as a Private Equity partner in our Singapore Office. Previously, Mr. Barsky was a partner in both New York and Singapore. Prior to rejoining the firm, he was a partner and portfolio manager at a leading event-driven hedge fund based in Singapore, where he ran the risk arbitrage and special situations portfolios. We're also pleased to welcome Kenji Funahashi in our San Diego Office, where he will be part of the Firm's Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. He comes to Jones Day from the San Diego office of Baker & McKenzie. Mr. Funahashi represents a number of Japanese, Asian, and European corporations engaged in investment and business operations in the United States.

Securities litigation dismissal upheld by Sixth Circuit

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a securities class action against Diebold, Inc. on December 22, 2009. (Konkol v. Diebold, Inc, No. 08-4752.) The plaintiffs claimed that Diebold and its management had violated Section 10(b) of the Securities Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 by prematurely recognizing revenues and engaging in other alleged accounting violations. The Jones Day team representing Diebold was led by Cleveland partner Jack Newman.

More description and the full opinion are available.

Second Chinese "dominance" decision issued under the China anti-monopoly law

On December 18, 2009, a Chinese court ruled in favor of Baidu, Inc. ("Baidu"), allegedly the largest Chinese search engine company, in a lawsuit filed by Tangshan Renren Information Service Company ("TRISC"), an online information platform. TRISC alleged that Baidu abused its dominant market position by downgrading TRISC in Baidu search results. This is the first Internet-related anti-monopoly lawsuit decided under the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law ("AML"), which took effect in August 2008.

The decision is only the second decision rendered by a Chinese court under the AML, after the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court issued the first in an abuse of dominance case decided last month (the Shanda-Sursen Case, as discussed in a prior Jones Day alert). These developments suggest that lawsuits under the AML are becoming a meaningful weapon for competitors and antitrust litigation is likely to rise.

Irvine Partners Advising Celgene in Gloucester Pharmaceuticals Acquisition
Jones Day is advising Celgene Corporation in its acquisition of Gloucester Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $640 million in cash, which includes up to $300 million in future U.S. and international regulatory milestone payments. Gloucester received FDA approval of its primary product, ISTODAX for cutaneous t-cell lymphoma in November. The deal team is led by Jonn Beeson and Kevin Espinola in Jones Day's Irvine office. The following press release provides further information.