Mergers & Acquisitions
Experience
Alston & Bird M&A attorneys have extensive experience advising clients engaged in a full range of domestic and cross-border public and private transactions, including acquisitions and divestitures, mergers, leveraged buyouts, going-private transactions, strategic alliances and joint ventures. We have developed significant industry-specific knowledge in many cutting-edge industries, including:
- biotechnology;
- consumer products and services;
- energy;
- financial services;
- health care;
- insurance; and
- technology and telecommunications
Accolades
Our M&A practice is consistently among the most active in the nation.
- Top 25 “M&A Advisers in Announced Deals with a Value of $100 Million or More,” based on number of deals in 2019. (The Deal)
- Ranked in the top 20, based on the number of deals, in the M&A category “US Announced Deals” for 2019. (Factset)
- Ranked #4 among U.S. law firms representing financial advisors in M&A activity for 2019. (Corporate Control Alert)
- Nationally ranked in Tier 1 for Mergers & Acquisitions Law since 2013. (U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms”)
Bringing Value to Our Clients
We operate based on two fundamental principles: first, that a client hires us to be facilitators, not roadblocks; and second, that we are there to protect the value of our client’s deal. We focus on our client’s business and long-term objectives and ascertain the elements of value in the deal for our client. We take a fully integrated approach to assessing the risks that affect value, negotiate to minimize those risks and structure the transaction so that the objectives are accomplished.
- Represented AGC Networks Limited, a global IT solutions provider, in its $118.7 million acquisition of Black Box Corporation.
- Represented American Proteins in the sale of its poultry rendering and blending assets to Tyson Foods for $850 million.
- Represented CatchMark Timber Trust in its acquisition of 1.1 million acres of Crown Pine East Texas timberlands for approximately $1.39 billion in a joint venture with a consortium of institutional investors.
- Represented CommScope Holding Company Inc. in its $3 billion purchase of TE Connectivity’s Broadband Network Solutions unit, consisting of telecom, enterprise, and wireless businesses.
- Represented Cox Automotive in its acquisition of Clutch Technologies, a vehicle subscription business.
- Represented Credit Suisse, the financial advisor to Pinnacle Foods, in Conagra Brands’ acquisition of Pinnacle Foods in a cash and stock merger valued at $10.9 billion.
- Represented First Cash Financial Services Inc., an international operator of retail pawn shops, in its merger of equals with Cash America International Inc. with a combined enterprise value of approximately $3 billion. The transaction creates the largest combined retail pawn store operator in the U.S. and Latin America, with total annual revenue of approximately $1.8 billion and more than 2,000 locations across four countries.
- Represented FLEETCOR Technologies Inc., a leading global provider of fuel cards and workforce payment products to businesses, in its $3.45 billion acquisition of Comdata Inc.
- Represented Grain Management LLC, a leading private equity firm focused on the communications sector, in its acquisition of Great Plains Communications, the largest privately owned telecommunications provider in Nebraska.
- For more than 10 years, we have represented Graphic Packaging International, a leading provider of paperboard packaging solutions to multinational and other consumer products companies, in more than a dozen M&A transactions, including its acquisition of assets from Delta Natural Kraft Inc.; its acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Sierra Pacific Packaging Inc.; several dispositions of non-core businesses; its merger agreement with Altivity Packaging LLC, a paperboard packaging company whose majority interest is held by the private equity group TPG Capital; and its $6 billion combination with the North America consumer packaging business of International Paper Company.
- Represented LinQuest Corporation, a federal government contractor and leading provider of space systems technology solutions to the U.S. defense and intelligence communities, in the sale of a controlling interest to Madison Dearborn Partners and CoVant Management.
- Represented Osaka, Japan-based Nippon Paint in its acquisition of Dunn-Edwards Corporation, one of the U.S.’s largest independent manufacturers of architectural, industrial, and high-performance paints.
- Represented STS Aviation Group, a global aviation solutions company, in the sale of a majority interest in the company to Greenbriar Equity Group, L.P.
- Represented Synovus Financial Corporation in its $2.9 billion acquisition of Florida-based FCB Financial Holdings Inc. in the second-largest bank deal in 2018 at time of announcement, based on value.
- Represented Turner Broadcasting, a Time Warner subsidiary and owner of CNN, Turner Sports, TNT, and Cartoon Network, in its sale of the broadcast assets of WPCH-TV to Meredith Corp. WPCH-TV is the former “Superstation WTBS” founded by Ted Turner.
- Represented Uniti Fiber Holdings in its $54 million acquisition of Information Transport Solutions, a technology solutions provider, primarily for educational institutions.
- Represented the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of ZAIS Group Holdings, an investment advisory and asset management firm, in a going-private transaction.