We have extensive experience in the communications and media sectors, both in the United States and around the world. Our clients include companies active in these sectors, including private equity funds in several acquisitions and dispositions of media-related portfolio companies.
Experience
- Thales in acquisitions and antitrust issues throughout the world.
- Silver Point Capital Advisors L.P. and related funds, as the largest secured and unsecured creditors, and ultimately as a plan sponsor, in connection with the chapter 11 cases of Muzak Holdings, a leading international supplier of business media services.
- A steering committee of first lien lenders of a leading educational Canadian publisher active in all areas of publishing (K-12, higher education, professional learning, business, industry and other markets) in connection with the publisher’s out-of-court restructuring efforts.
- The U.K.’s Pension Protection Fund in connection with the Reader’s Digest chapter 11 cases.
- Wilmington Trust Co. as indenture trustee for bondholders in the chapter 11 cases of leading North American newsprint maker AbitibiBowater Inc.
- Broadview Networks Holding Inc. in a proposed IPO.
- CenturyLink, Inc. in a number of offerings, including:
- $1.5 billion 144A offerings of Level 3 Financing, Inc. senior secured notes.
- $1 billion 144A offering of Level 3 Financing, Inc. senior notes.
- Interpublic Group in its registered public offering of $500 million aggregate principal amount of its 2.400% Senior Notes due 2031 and $500 million aggregate principal amount of its 3.375% Senior Notes due 2041.
- Take-Two Interactive Software in its offering of $2.7 billion of Senior Notes, consisting of $1 billion of its 3.300% Senior Notes due 2024, $600 million of its 3.550% Senior Notes due 2025, $600 million of its 3.700% Senior Notes due 2027, and $500 million of its 4.000% Senior Notes due 2032.
- Bloomberg L.P. on the following IP matters:
- Advised Bloomberg on a wide variety of matters, including compliance with telecommunications, data protection, and privacy laws in over 70 of the jurisdictions in which it has customers.
- Coordinate Bloomberg’s trademark registrations worldwide.
- Counseled Bloomberg in connection with providing information over a proprietary network and the Internet, radio and television broadcasting, and book and magazine publishing.
- Negotiated and closed on the sale of the monthly Bloomberg Wealth Manager magazine to the National Underwriting Company and on the subscription liability of Bloomberg Personal Finance magazine to Time Consumer Marketing, Inc. We also drafted form agreements for Bloomberg Press to use in negotiating agreements to custom publish magazines and newsletters.
- Bloomberg L.P. in patent infringement litigation brought by Reuters.
- ACF Investment Bank in its sale of a majority stake to The Forest Road Company.
- Ariel Alternatives, LLC in its acquisition of a majority stake in My Code, a leading multicultural media and marketing services company.
- Ariel Alternatives, LLC, in its acquisition of a majority stake in Sorenson Communications, a deal with an enterprise value of $1.3 billion.
- América Móvil in the approximately $6.25 billion sale of TracFone to Verizon.
- Atlas Holdings in its acquisition of LSC Communications, a commercial print and digital media solutions company, and in its planned acquisition of R.R. Donnelley for $2.1 billion.
- Blackstone and its portfolio company Clarion Events on Clarion’s joint venture with gfu to host leading consumer electronics and home appliances trade show IFA.
- Campaign Monitor, a portfolio company of Insight Partners, on its acquisition of Selligent Holdings Limited, a B2C marketing automation platform, from HGGC.
- CM Group, a portfolio company of Insight Partners, on its merger with Cheetah Digital.
- DPI, a significant minority shareholder, on the $1.85 billion sale of Eaton Towers to American Tower Corporation.
- EMG, a portfolio company of PAI Partners, on its combination with Gravity Media, creating one of the world’s largest broadcast technology and production companies.
- ForgeLight LLC, an operating and investment company focused on the media and consumer technology sectors, in its acquisition with Searchlight Capital Partners of a majority interest in Univision, the largest Spanish language media company in the United States.
- Hachette Book Group, a subsidiary of Lagardére SA, in its $240 million acquisition of Workman Publishing.
- Insight Partners in a substantial investment in DistroKid, valuing the company at $1.3 billion.
- Insight Partners on its Series B investment in SEDNA, an intelligent communications system for high-performance teams.
- Intermediate Capital Group in connection with its investment in Circet, the leading telecommunications network service provider in Europe.
- Interpublic Group in its $2.3 billion acquisition of data marketing company Acxiom Marketing Solutions.
- Lagardère Sports on the contemplated sale of its leading global sports marketing firm, Lagardère Sports, to H.I.G. Capital.
- Lakeside Book Company, an Atlas Holdings platform company, in its acquisition of Phoenix Color Corp.
- Lakeside Book Company in its acquisition of Marquis Book Printing, Inc.
- Latour Capital on the disposal of its stake in YellowKorner, a world leader in art photography accessible to all, to investment company Blue Altitude Invest (BAI).
- Loral in its agreement with PSP Investments and Telesat Canada to combine Loral and Telesat into a new Canadian public company.
- MultiView, a Warburg Pincus portfolio company, in connection with its sale to an affiliate of The Stagwell Group.
- North Road Company, a global content studio founded by Peter Chernin, in the acquisition of leading Turkish film and TV producer Karga Seven Picture.
- OSG Billing Services, a portfolio company of Aquiline Capital Partners, in the take-private acquisition of Communisis PLC, a communications and marketing outsourcing company listed on the London Stock Exchange, and in the acquisition of NCP Solutions, a provider of outsourced transactional communications for the financial services industry.
- Overtime Elite, a basketball league featuring top 16-20-year-old players, in its exclusive multiyear media rights agreement with Amazon.
- Plan B Entertainment, the production company founded and led by Brad Pitt, in the sale of a majority stake to Mediawan.
- Platinum Equity in connection with a comprehensive financing agreement with portfolio company Aventiv Technologies.
- Searchlight Capital Partners on the sale of its significant stake in EOLO, an Italian broadband provider, to Partners Group.
- Shamrock Capital Advisors in the following transactions:
- its investment in data, measurement and analytics company EDO, Inc.
- its Series B investment in Religion of Sports, a leading sports media production company.
- its Series D investment in VidMob, the leading platform for Intelligent Creative.
- Syntagma in its acquisition of Nexans’ Telecom Systems business.
- Take-Two Interactive Software in the following transactions:
- the proposed takeover of London-listed Codemasters for approximately $994 million.
- its acquisition of Dynamixyz, a world-class leader in video-based facial animation services.
- its $192 million acquisition of mobile games developer Playdots.
- its acquisition of Popcore, an independent mobile game developer based in Germany.
- the approximately $12.7 billion acquisition of Zygna, a global leader in interactive entertainment.
- The estate of Joe Cocker in the sale of the singer’s music catalog to Iconic Artists Group.
- Leading African music and entertainment company TRACE, TRACE’s co-founder, Olivier Laouchez, and the TRACE management team in TRACE’s acquisition by TPG Growth.
- The producers and principals of Venture 10 Studio Group in connection with the roll up of Venture 10 Studio Group into V10 Entertainment, Inc., a newly formed company backed by Clarion Capital Partners, and the acquisition of a majority stake in Vin Di Bona Productions and Fishbowl Worldwide Media, the producers of the America’s Funniest Home Videos franchise.
- WebMediaBrands Corporation (formerly Jupitermedia Corporation) in connection with numerous acquisitions and dispositions, including:
- the sales of Jupiter Research, Search Engine Strategies and ClickZ.
- its acquisitions of Mediabistro, Workbook, Animation Factory, Comstock Images, Creatas/Dynamic Graphics and PictureArts.
- Fibernet Telecom Group in connection with multiple dark and lit fiber multi-year indefeasible rights of use.