On September 15, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury published a final rule (the “Final Rule”) significantly changing the scope of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) mandatory notification requirements for foreign investments in U.S. critical technology businesses and expanding it to investments in all industries.  The Final Rule, which

Following completion of a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”), President Trump recently issued an Executive Order requiring ByteDance to, among other things, divest itself of assets and property that enable or support operation of the TikTok application in the United States within 90 days (the “CFIUS Order”).  This was not an unexpected outcome.  We previously reported on the unusual nature of CFIUS’s review here.  The week before, President Trump issued a different Executive Order authorizing the Commerce Department to prohibit transactions involving a U.S. person or within the jurisdiction of the United States with ByteDance (the “Commerce Order”), with details of the restrictions to come in 45 days.  We previously reported on the Commerce Order here.  According to press reports, negotiations for a possible acquisition of TikTok continue, and it remains to be seen whether those restrictions will come to fruition and on what timetable.
Continue Reading President Trump Orders TikTok Divestment; Sweeping Order Appears to Indicate a Broadening of CFIUS’s Jurisdiction

Over the last few weeks, there has been a flurry of activity at the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).  In addition to imposing filing fees, which we wrote about here, and issuing proposed amendments to broaden the mandatory CFIUS notification requirements, which we wrote about here, CFIUS recently blocked a robotics joint venture in China with no U.S. assets and limited to operations outside the United States, released detailed information regarding the transactions reviewed by CFIUS during 2018 (as well as summary data for transactions reviewed in 2019), and announced a new electronic filing system.
Continue Reading CFIUS Blocks Joint Venture Outside the United States, Releases 2018-2019 Data, and Goes Electronic

On May 21, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury published a proposed rule (the “Proposed Rule”) that would significantly broaden the scope of mandatory filing requirements of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) for foreign investments involving U.S. critical technology businesses.

The Proposed Rule abandons the current restriction to specified

The COVID-19 pandemic has created market conditions ripe for increased cross border investment as businesses scramble for capital and investors target distressed assets.  The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is focused on the trend.  Senior Department of Defense officials have recently and repeatedly stressed the need for the active

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) published an interim rule (the “Interim Rule”) implementing the filing fee provisions of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (“FIRRMA”) along the lines set out in Treasury’s proposal of March 9. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States

On March 9, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury published a proposed rule implementing the filing fee provisions of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act. The Proposed Rule would assess tiered filing fees for all voluntary notifications to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and is open for public comment

On September 17, 2019, the Department of the Treasury proposed regulations implementing most of the remaining provisions of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (“FIRRMA”), which updated the statute authorizing reviews of foreign investment by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”).
Continue Reading Proposed CFIUS Regulations Expand Its Jurisdiction

On March 27, 2019, journalists affiliated with Reuters reported that the Kunlun Group (“Kunlun”), a China-based tech firm, was preparing to sell its wholly owned subsidiary, Grindr, after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) informed the group that Kunlun’s continued ownership of Grindr constituted a national security risk.  This forced divestiture of Grindr is a pointed reminder that CFIUS remains focused on protecting the sensitive personal data of U.S. citizens, has the power to upend closed deals that have not been cleared by the committee, and is dedicating increased resources to the review of transactions that are not notified to CFIUS.
Continue Reading CFIUS Forces Kunlun to Unwind 2016 Acquisition of Grindr Over Concerns About the Protection of Sensitive Personal Data

On October 10, 2018, the Department of the Treasury issued interim regulations (“Interim Regulations”) for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) to conduct a pilot program implementing provisions relating to critical technologies of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (“FIRRMA”), which recently amended the Exon-Florio amendments to the