Mergers & Acquisitions

Overview

Dykema draws on its “excellent breadth and depth of knowledge” (Chambers USA) to represent a diverse group of middle-market and Fortune 500 companies, including automotive, financial services, energy, health care and insurance industry clients, in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions. We have also handled significant transactions for manufacturing, distribution, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, gaming, retail, sports and entertainment, technology-based and business services clients. Additionally, through our Private Equity and Venture Capital practice, we have represented private equity and venture capital firms and other investors in M&A deals and a wide variety of capital-raising transactions.

Our attorneys deliver excellent representation and customized solutions built on a thorough knowledge of each client’s business and objectives. We offer comprehensive counsel on a broad spectrum of transactions, including public and private mergers; stock and asset purchases and sales; spinoffs; acquisitions and divestitures involving ESOPs; leveraged buyouts; exchange and tender offers; proxy contests; divisional purchases and sales and cross-border transactions involving businesses throughout the world.

We work with clients from inception through closing of a transaction, providing them with a full menu of M&A-related services that include:

  • Negotiating investment banker engagement letters
  • Counseling on preliminary planning, and structure, as well as the tax implications of a deal with support from the Firm's tax group
  • Conducting due diligence investigations of potential targets or acquirers
  • Negotiating and drafting complex business purchase and sale agreements
  • Advising boards and special committees on the transaction process and related fiduciary responsibilities
  • Strategic advice on M&A-related corporate governance, compliance and stockholder relations issues
  • Preparing proxy materials for stockholder approved transactions
  • Planning and implementing sale transactions conducted as “auctions”
  • Preparing pre-merger notification reports under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act
  • Obtaining governmental approvals
  • Drafting and negotiating transaction financing documentation

Our M&A practitioners also work closely with the Firm's attorneys in other practice areas—such as intellectual property, tax, environmental, real estate, labor and employment, and benefits—who have substantial experience in M&A within their disciplines. In addition, our M&A attorneys work with the Firm’s bankruptcy group to represent companies seeking to acquire businesses or assets out of bankruptcy, as well as companies in bankruptcy seeking strategic partners or potential acquirers.

Annual Mergers and Acquisitions Outlook Survey

Since 2005, Dykema, with the help of our top deal community clients and friends, has developed a premier annual “State of the M&A Market” analysis cited by a range of national media including The Wall Street Journal, The Deal, Dow Jones, UPI and Bloomberg.

Given the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, in June 2020, Dykema and the Association for Corporate Growth chapters in Detroit, San Antonio/Austin and Columbus canvassed senior executives and M&A professionals to gauge the effects of the pandemic on the U.S. economy and M&A. The results were compared to Dykema’s 15th Annual M&A Outlook survey completed in the autumn of 2019.

For insights on how respondents feel COVID-19 affected M&A and what the market may look like as the world adjusts to the “new normal,” click here see the flash survey results.

In the 15th annual edition of this survey, we canvassed senior executives—CEOs, CFOs and other professionals involved in M&A activities with their respective firms—to gauge their insights and perspectives on the mergers and acquisitions market in the coming 12 months. The results provide a snapshot of the M&A market and the economy this year and how they compare from previous years.

To read a summary of Dykema’s 2019 Mergers & Acquisitions Outlook Survey, please click here.

Experience Matters

Dykema attorneys have represented:

  • A global private equity firm in its acquisition of a global automotive OEM and Tier 1 supplier of aluminum and ductile iron components including chassis, powertrain components and modules.
  • A leading global supplier of systems and components for the automotive industry in its acquisition of a company that provides an exclusive hard-coating process for bright trim assemblies.
  • A publicly traded medical professional liability insurance holding company in connection with its sale to a California-based medical professional liability insurance company in a $386 million all-cash merger.
  • Compuware Corporation in its $265 million acquisition of Dyna Trace Software, Inc.
  • Palace Sports & Entertainment, Inc. in its sale of the NHL franchise Tampa Bay Lightning.
  • The Majestic Star Casino, LLC in its $253 million acquisition of Trump Indiana, Inc.
  • Two rural electric cooperatives, Rock Energy Cooperative and Jo-Carroll Energy Cooperative, in acquiring the natural gas and electric service territories of Alliant Energy Corporation’s South Beloit Water, Gas and Electric Company and Interstate Power & Light Company.
  • Cloverland Electric Cooperative as lead outside regulatory and corporate counsel in its purchase of Edison Sault Electric Company—an investor-owned utility operating as a subsidiary of Wisconsin Energy Corporation. 

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