Mergers, Acquisitions & Joint Ventures

Overview

Parker Poe offers clients a wealth of experience across a broad range of business combinations and related activities. Our group is made up of attorneys who work regularly with public and private companies and private equity firms for whom acquisitions and divestitures are a major strategic focus.

As part of the firm's substantial international business practice, our attorneys regularly counsel non-U.S. clients who seek to enter or expand their presence in the U.S. market through acquisitions, as well as U.S. companies acquiring or selling businesses overseas.

Our transactional attorneys work with clients in a number of industries, including health care products and services, utilities, life sciences and biotechnology, niche manufacturing and specialty industrials, energy, food and beverage, automotive, equipment rentals, environmental, and waste services and recycling.

We have the experience needed to guide business combinations successfully from structuring through negotiation and closing. In particular, we provide seasoned legal advice and services related to:

Auction transactions, from both the seller and bidder perspectives.
Leveraged acquisitions and related financing, including senior debt, mezzanine funding, and equity financing.
Tender offers, proxy contests, and other change of control techniques.
Client roll-up and build-up strategies, including techniques for the efficient and cost-effective completion of a high volume of industry-specific acquisitions.
Alternatives to traditional M&A transactions, including joint ventures, strategic alliances, and cross-licensing agreements.
Going private transactions, management buyouts, and other divestitures implicating the fiduciary responsibilities of officers and of directors (including special committees).
Acquisitions pursuant to Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code and other transactions involving insolvent or distressed companies.

We work closely with Parker Poe attorneys in related practice areas, such as tax, securities, intellectual property, labor and employment, employee benefits, corporate governance, real estate, environmental, and litigation. In collaboration with our clients' in-house counsel, accountants, investment bankers, and other advisers, we are able to ensure an effective and cost-efficient completion of transactions.