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Howard Block is a partner in the Corporate & Financial Services Department. He has experience in mergers and acquisitions involving public and private companies, private equity transactions, capital markets transactions involving public and private offerings of debt and equity securities, and general corporate matters, in each case across multiple industries but with a particular focus on the insurance sector.

Experience

Mr. Block advised on the following significant matters:

Mergers and Acquisitions/Private Equity Transactions

  • Title Resources Group (TRG) in its take-private acquisition of real estate technology company Doma Holdings.  

  • Bamboo Ide8 Insurance Services, LLC in its approximately $285 million sale of a majority stake to White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd.

  • MetLife in its pending reinsurance of a $19.2 billion block of annuity and non-traditional life business to affiliates of Global Atlantic. 

  • A real estate investment firm in its pending acquisition of an insurance carrier.

  • Prudential Financial in its approximately $10 Billion block reinsurance transaction with an affiliate of Constellation Insurance Holdings, Inc.

  • Centerbridge Partners in its acquisition of a controlling stake in Realogy's title insurance underwriter, as part of a strategic agreement to form a title insurance underwriter joint venture with Realogy

  • Allstate in the approximately $4.0 billion sale of Allstate Life Insurance Company to entities managed by Blackstone

  • Allstate in connection with its approximately $4 billion merger with National General Holdings

  • Equitable Financial Life in the reinsurance to affiliates of Global Atlantic of a 50% quota share of pre-2009 group retirement VA contracts

  • An international asset management firm in its acquisition of an insurance carrier.

  • Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: EQH) in its $12 billion agreement with Venerable Holdings to reinsure a legacy variable annuity block

  • Versant Health, Owner of Davis Vision and Superior Vision, in its $1.675 billion acquisition by MetLife

  • Allstate in its $1.43 billion acquisition of SquareTrade

  • US cloud-based software vendor Acumatica in its sale to EQT

  • Assurant, Inc. in its $2.5 billion acquisition of The Warranty Group

  • MetLife in connection with its separation of a substantial portion of its retail segment and related registration of shares of the common stock of its subsidiary Brighthouse Financial, Inc.

  • Progeny 3, Survey Point Holdings, Inc. and Rail Management Services, LLC in the acquisition by Progeny 3 and Carnival Corporation & plc of the White Pass & Yukon Route division of TWC Enterprises

  • MetLife in the sale of its national distribution sales force

  • Bridge Growth Partners, LLC in its

    • sale of Accedian, a leader in performance analytics and end-user experience solutions, to Cisco

    • majority equity investment in BackOffice Associates, the worldwide leader in information governance, data stewardship, and data migration solutions

    • acquisition of Finalsite, a leading SaaS-based learning and communications platform for U.S. and international schools

    • acquisition of Solace, an innovative and leading provider of infrastructure messaging technology 

  • Aegon in its sale of Transamerica Financial Advisors, Inc. to John Hancock Financial Network

  • Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. in its 

    • acquisition of Kerbal Space Program, a critically acclaimed space simulation program

    • acquisition of mobile game developer Social Point for $250 million, with a potential earn-out of up to $25.9 million

    • acquisitions of the World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. video game franchise and "Evolve" (working title) video game title from THQ Inc.

  • Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. in its 

    • agreement to sell its Public Sector and Education businesses to Vista Equity Partners for $850 million

    • acquisition of SunGard in a deal valued at $9.1 billion

  • Bridge Growth Partners, LLC and Salient CRGT in Salient CRGT’s acquisition of Information Innovators, Inc.

  • Bridge Growth Partners, LLC and CRGT in CRGT’s merger with Salient Federal Solutions, Inc.

  • Men’s Wearhouse in its rejection of the $2.3 billion unsolicited buyout bid from Jos. A Bank Clothiers, Inc. (and earlier buyout bids of approximately $1.6 billion and $1.78 billion)

  • Carrix, Inc. in the purchase of the interest in FRS Capital, the parent of Carrix, held by Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners and the related significant minority investment in FRS Capital by an affiliate of Fernando Chico Pardo

  • Hudson’s Bay in its $2.9 billion cross-border acquisition of Saks Incorporated

  • Men’s Wearhouse in its acquisition of Joseph Abboud and proposed disposition of K&G Men’s Company

  • Elior in its acquisition of TrustHouse Services Group 

  • Level 3 Communications in its acquisition of Global Crossing Limited 

  • Cowen Group in its acquisition of LaBranche & Co.

  • Ramius LLC in its business combination with Cowen Group, Inc.

  • Genii Capital in its affiliate PHC Acquisitions, LLC’s stalking horse bid for Polaroid Holding Company

Financial Advisor Representations

  • Platinum Equity in the financing of its $1.9 billion acquisition of Wesco Aircraft

  • Morgan Stanley as financial advisor to the board of directors of Allergan in its terminated proposed combination with Pfizer 

  • Evercore as financial advisor to the board of directors of CommerceHub on its $1.1 billion acquisition by GTCR and Sycamore Partners

  • Goldman, Sachs in connection with the pending acquisition of Silver Bay Realty Trust Corp. by Tricon Capital 

  • Peter J. Solomon Company in connection with the management buyout of American Greetings Corporation 

Capital Markets Representation

  • Lennar Corporation in numerous offerings of senior notes

  • Level 3 Communications in numerous offerings of senior notes 

  • Take-Two Interactive Software in its offerings of convertible senior notes

  • Cowen Group in its initial public offering following its combination with Ramius

Credentials

Education


Harvard Law School, J.D., 2008 Cornell University, B.S., 2005

Bar Admissions


New York