Our Mergers & Acquisitions practice represents companies and private equity firms in public and private transactions worldwide. Our clients include Global 100 companies, private equity firms and investment banks as well as venture-backed companies who depend on our industry knowledge to support their formative transactions. We bring professionalism, attention to detail, creativity and commercial sensitivity to all of our M&A clients and transactions. In 2005, we advised on over 30 M&A transactions with an aggregate value of more than $80 billion.
Covington’s approach to M&A combines our corporate expertise with our deep understanding of regulated industries and our commercial approach. This combination enables our clients to structure their transactions most advantageously and with a view towards meeting their legal and business requirements. Each client has access to Covington’s full resources, including industry expertise and substantive due diligence areas such as intellectual property, environmental, benefits, and tax with lawyers experienced in M&A processes and time demands.
M&A transactions benefit from a collaborative process; significant teamwork and the recognition of each party's goals are central to effective execution. Covington attorneys throughout the firm with varied practice and industry expertise team with our clients, their advisors, and any other parties to the transaction to ensure deals close successfully.
Our expertise covers the wide range of M&A activity, including public acquisitions and divestitures, “going private” transactions, proxy contests and unsolicited bids, spin-offs, acquisitions and divestitures of venture-backed and other private companies, private equity transactions, joint ventures and cross-border acquisitions, and divestitures. We help our clients complete their most important and sensitive transactions, practicing out of our New York, Washington, San Francisco and London offices.
Representative Matters
- Kerr-McGee Corporation in its $18 billion sale to Anadarko Corporation; in its $3.4 billion stock-for-stock acquisition of Westport Resources Corporation; and, in its $4 billion stock repurchase through a modified “Dutch auction” self tender offer and related defense and settlement of a proxy contest initiated by Carl C. Icahn and JANA Partners.
- The Board of Directors of Certegy, Inc. in its $6.7 billion merger agreement with Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), a subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial, Inc.
- Thomson Reuters in its acquisition of Information Holdings Inc.; in its sale of healthcare-related magazines to Advanstar Communications Inc.; in acquiring the publishing assets of Biological Abstracts, Inc. and BIOSIS--including the world’s largest life sciences abstracting and indexing service; and, Thomson Healthcare Inc. in its sale of the American Health Consultants and BioWorld groups to the Thompson Publishing Group.
- Pfizer in its acquisition of Bioren Inc., a privately held company specializing in technology for optimizing antibodies; in its acquisition of Idun Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company; and, in its acquisition of Rinat Neuroscience Corp. a company that is developing therapeutic proteins form the treatment of central nervous system diseases and disorders.
- Hanesbrands Inc. in its spin-off from Sara Lee Corporation.
Accolades
- Ranked as a top 20 US M&A firm in 2005, based on transaction value, by Thomson Financial, Bloomberg and mergermarket.
- Corporate Board Member – America’s Best Lawyers (2006-2007) - Ranked in the top twenty firms nationally by corporate directors.
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