Mergers & Acquisitions
You hire M&A lawyers to facilitate deals, not hold them up. Our team carefully assesses risk, and structures and negotiates your transactions to position you best. However, we don’t give you unnecessary, protracted updates on minor details. We maximize time by ensuring clear communication, lean staffing, and a keen understanding of your long-term objectives.
Languages
We have one of the country’s most experienced groups of M&A attorneys, advising businesses every day on how to access the market to achieve their strategic and liquidity objectives. With over 125 M&A attorneys throughout our firm, we have the depth to assemble a complete team of lawyers that can react quickly to solve the most critical challenges facing your business today. We serve clients ranging from Fortune 500 corporations, closely held companies, private equity sponsors, investment banks and special committees.
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 the first half of 2021. (The Deal)
- Ranked in the top 10, based on the number of deals, in the M&A category “US Middle Market Announced Deal” for the first half of 2021. (Factset)
- Ranked #6 among U.S. law firms representing financial advisors in M&A activity for 2020. (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 the key members of the management team of AEVEX Aerospace in the sale of the company by Trive Capital to Madison Dearborn Partners and CoVant.
- Represented Asahi Intecc Co. Ltd., a Japan-based medical equipment manufacturer, in its acquisition of Pathways Medical Corporation, a California-based company that possesses unique electrical wiring technology, from Cygnus Investment Corporation and a number of individual shareholders, and in its acquisition of Rev. 1 Engineering Inc., a California-based contractor that designs and develops medical devices.
- Represented AVX Corporation, a leading manufacturer and supplier of advanced electronic components, in its $1.03 billion sale to Kyocera Corporation, a manufacturer of electronic equipment and components.
- Represented Builders FirstSource, a leading manufacturer and distributor of building products to professional homebuilders, in the sale of its Eastern U.S. Gypsum Distribution Operations to L&W Supply, a Chicago, Illinois-based specialty building materials distributor owned by ABC Supply.
- Represented Clearview Capital LLC in its acquisition, along with management, of MBI Industrial Medicine Inc., a U.S.-based leading provider of occupational health care services to employers and employees.
- Represented Cox Automotive Inc. in various transactions, including its acquisition of Fyusion, a computer vision company and leader in immersive vehicle imaging solutions for automotive and other industries; and the $20 million sale of its interest in Flexdrive, a fleet management joint venture, to Lyft, a leading ride share service.
- Represented Cox Enterprises, Inc. in its preferred investment in Nexus Fuels, LLC, a clean fuel technology company.
- Represented Credit Suisse, financial advisor to 7-Eleven in its $21 billion acquisition of Speedway LLC from Marathon Petroleum Corporation.
- Represented Credit Suisse and J.P. Morgan Securities, financial advisors to Concho Resources in its $9.7 billion sale to ConocoPhillips.
- Represented Citi and Credit Suisse, as financial advisors to Hormel Foods Corporation, in its $3.35 billion acquisition of Planters® from the Kraft Heinz Company.
- Represented California-based ePreop Inc., a perioperative reporting software solutions provider, in its sale to Minnesota-based Provation Software Group Inc., a medical documentation software provider backed by Clearlake Capital Group.
- Represented Fifth Third Bancorp in its acquisition of Hammond Hanlon Camp LLC, a premier strategic advisory and investment banking firm focused on hospitals, health systems, and related organizations.
- Represented Fortress Investment Group and its affiliates as the successful bidder to acquire the assets of The Krystal Company in a 363 sale process.
- Represented Grain Management LLC, a leading private investment firm that focuses on broadband infrastructure and technology companies, in its acquisition of Conexão Group, one of the largest high speed internet service providers in the northeast and southeast regions of Brazil.
- 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 Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC and its portfolio company AEVEX Aerospace in the acquisition of Geodetics, Inc., a developer and provider of precise positioning navigation and timing, LiDAR mobile mapping, and related products to both U.S. government and commercial customers.
- Represented NCR Corporation in its acquisition of grocery e-commerce leader Freshop Inc.
- Represented Pamlico Capital in its growth investment in Protera Technologies Inc., a leading provider of public cloud-centric application management and migration services for SAP software, as well as other enterprise IT outsourcing services.
- Represented Ridgemont Equity Partners in its growth investment in Softdocs, an enterprise content management (ECM) software provider for the higher education and K-12 markets.
- Represented Select Interior Concepts Inc., a premier installer and distributor of interior building products, in the $215 million sale of its Residential Design Services segment to Interior Logic Group, a portfolio company of Blackstone.
- Represented Stemline Therapeutics, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, in its $677 million sale to the Menarini Group, a privately held Italian pharmaceutical and diagnostics company.
- Represented Tropical Smoothie Café, a leading franchisor of fast casual cafes, in its sale to Levine Leichtman Capital Partners.
- Represented Truist Bank in the sale of its institutional 401(k) investment advisory services business to OneDigital Investment Advisors, and in the sale of its institutional 401(k) recordkeeping businesses to Ascensus and Empower Retirement.
- Represented U.S. Bank and its payments subsidiary Elavon in the sale of its Mexico-based payments operations to Banco Santander.
Highlights
Grain Management Acquires Conexão Group
Alston & Bird client Grain Management LLC, a leading private investment firm focused on broadband technology and the global communications sector, has acquired Conexão Group, one of Brazil’s largest and fastest-growing high-speed internet service providers.
Alston & Bird Represents Sole Source Capital on the Financing of Its Acquisition of I.D. Images
Alston & Bird client Sole Source Capital LLC, an industrial-focused private equity firm, has acquired I.D. Images, a premier provider of product identification solutions offering one of the most comprehensive selections of labels in the industry.
Alston & Bird Advises Sentek Consulting on Its Acquisition by Deloitte
Alston & Bird client Sentek Consulting Inc., a systems engineering and cybersecurity firm primarily serving the U.S. Navy, has been acquired by Deloitte.
Graphic Packaging Holding Company to Acquire Americraft Carton
Alston & Bird client Graphic Packaging Holding Company, a leading global provider of sustainable fiber-based packaging solutions, has announced its intention to acquire Americraft Carton, one of North America’s largest privately owned paperboard folding carton producers, in a transaction valued at approximately $280 million.
James Sullivan | The Art of the Multijurisdictional Transaction
James Sullivan, transactions partner, shares insights on structuring cross-border deals, an area with a decade of steady growth.