Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati have won top roles on Microsoft’s $26.2bn (£18.4bn) acquisition of LinkedIn.
Microsoft sought legal counsel from Simpson Thacher partners Alan Klein and Anthony Vernace in New York.
Partner Greg Grogan advised on executive compensation and employee benefits matters, while Silicon Valley-based partner Bill Brentani worked on securities issues. Partners Lori Lesser, Jonathan Goldstein and Joyce Xu provided support on litigation, tax and derivatives matters respectively.
Wilson Sonsini, meanwhile, represented professional network website LinkedIn, which has been acquired by Microsoft in an all-cash transaction valued at $26.2bn.
Corporate partners Katharine Martin, Martin Korman and Bradley Finkelstein led Wilson Sonsini’s legal team, while partners Selwyn Goldberg and TJ Graham worked on technology issues.
Employee matters were handled by partners John Aguirre and Scott McCall, with partners Boris Feldman and Elizabeth Peterson advising on litigation. Partners William Chandler III and Amy Simmerman worked on corporate governance, alongside finance partners Michael Occhiolini and Erik Franks, and real estate partner James McCann. Partners Josephine Aiello LeBeau and Donald Vieira additionally looked at regulatory issues, while partner Ivan Humphreys was in charge of tax.
LinkedIn currently has 433 million members, with 105 million unique visiting members per month.
The transaction is expected to close at the end of this year.
Background to the deal
Simpson Thacher is a longstanding adviser to Microsoft, advising the company on its £4.6bn takeover of Nokia’ mobile phone unit in 2013, as well as its $8.5bn purchase of Skype in 2011.
Software giant Microsoft has seen its fair change of in-house changes this year, with general counsel and corporate vice president Horacio Gutierrez moving over to Spotify as its new legal head. Gutierrez was promoted to general counsel just last year, after former lead Brad Smith became Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer.
Wilson Sonsini has also advised its client before, most recently representing LinkedIn on its $1.5bn acquisition of online learning company lynda.com.
Both firms recently won work on another multi-billion dollar tech mandate, with Wilson Sonsini partner Martin Korman and Todd Cleary advising cybersecurity company Blue Coat on its $4.65bn sale to Symantec. Simpson Thacher was co-counsel to Symantec on the committed debt financing side, while Ropes & Gray advised Symantec owner Bain Capital. Its team was led by private equity partner Will Shields in Boston.