DLA Piper represented Coolpad Group Ltd, a Shenzhen-based smartphone maker, on its joint venture with Qihoo 360, the owner of China's second largest online search engine, which gives Qihoo a 45% stake and Coolpad a 55% stake in the JV. The parties agreed that the JV was valued at US$ 909.05 million, to which Qihoo 360 injected US$ 409 million in cash and Coolpad injected the assets for its Dazen business, which they launched in January 2014.
Leica Geosystems AG has acquired technet-rail 2010 GmbH, a software development firm specialising in geospatial big data applications for the rail transportation industry.
Technet-rail is headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and creates software solutions in the areas of track and road construction, surveying, integration of geodata and 3-D laser scanning.
Noerr has advised Rocket Internet SE on the significant expansion of the world’s leading platform for mobile food delivery services, Global Online Takeaway Group, as well as on a further investment in the internet platform Delivery Hero. The Noerr team advising Rocket was led by the Berlin partner Dr Sascha Leske.
DLA Piper represented Marchex, Inc., a Seattle-based mobile advertising technology company, in the sale of its domain portfolio business to GoDaddy, Inc., a provider of website and domain names.
Under the terms of the agreement, Marchex will receive US$28.1 million in exchange for 200,000 domain names. DLA Piper also represented Marchex in connection with a third amendment to Marchex's Credit Agreement with US Bank in connection with the GoDaddy transaction.
The Swiss KABA Group (SIX: KABN), which specialises in access and security solutions, has agreed on a merger with the German DORMA Group.
KABA is a listed company and leading provider of access control, enterprise data collection and key systems worldwide with a market capitalisation in excess of EUR 2 billion and annual turnover of more than CHF 1 billion.
Simmons & Simmons has advised Vodafone Qatar on the successful refinancing of US$330m of conventional external borrowings with a Shariah compliant 'Wakala' investment agreement.
The transaction has a tenure of 5 years and will be used for working capital and capital expenditure. The refinancing is unique, being Vodafone Group's first Shariah compliant intercompany financing. Vodafone Qatar has also reported that, effective from 01 January 2015, it commenced the implementation of Shariah rules and practices in all of its operations.
DLA Piper represented CyrusOne Inc., a global enterprise data center and colocation provider, in its acquisition of Cervalis Holdings LLC, a privately held owner and operator of data centers, for US$400 million.
Under the terms of the definitive agreement, CyrusOne will acquire four data center facilities and two work area recovery facilities serving the New York metropolitan area. The transaction will expand CyrusOne’s existing portfolio to 31 data centers across 12 distinct markets (ten cities in the United States, London and Singapore).
Orange’s Board of Directors accepted Vivendi’s proposal to enter into exclusive negotiations within the framework of the sale of an 80% stake in Dailymotion, based on an enterprise value of EUR 265 million. During such exclusive negotiations, the parties will be required, inter alia, to finalize the final terms of the operation which will be subject to information-consultation of their respective workers councils.
DLA Piper has advised Discovery Communications on the disposal of Nordic radio broadcaster, SBS Discovery Radio, to Bauer Media.
The pan-Nordic broadcaster reaches a weekly audience of more than 10 million and is the leading commercial radio operator in Sweden and Denmark, with a strong presence in Norway and Finland. It also reaches more than four million unique users through its digital platforms and online radio players.
Simpson Thacher represented United Group B.V., a KKR portfolio company, in connection with a Rule 144A and Regulation S offering of €150 million in aggregate principal amount of its Senior Secured Notes due 2020. The transaction closed on April 28, 2015. United Group used the net proceeds from this offering to prepay all of the outstanding borrowings under its revolving credit facility, to repay certain of its outstanding debt and for general corporate purposes.