Herbert Smith Freehills' London and Madrid offices have teamed up to advise Telefónica SA on its agreement to sell O2 to Hutchison Whampoa, parent company of UK telecom operator Three, for an initial amount of £9.25 billion and an additional deferred payment of £1 billion to be paid once the cumulative cash flow of the combined company in the UK has reached an agreed threshold.

The combination of Three and UK will create the UK's largest mobile operator, with almost 33 million customers.

Macfarlanes has advised UK technology start up Improbable on its $20 million fundraising from Andreessen Horowitz, the US venture capital firm that backed Twitter and Facebook.

Since it was founded three years ago, Improbable has developed ground breaking technology, enabling thousands of people to use the same, fully-integrated simulated world simultaneously, which can be applied across a host of different industry sectors, including gaming, defence, transportation and disease planning.

Zhuhai Ltech Technology Co., Ltd. (“Ltech Technology”, stock code: 832110) has successfully listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (“NEEQ”) system.

Shanghai-based attorneys Wang Enshun, Wang Weidong and Zhuhai-based attorney Tang Hongjie conducted due diligence and advised on the restructuring and listing for the company. Their expertise and efficiency won recognition from the client and participating intermediaries.

Squire Patton Boggs has advised AIM-listed client Accumuli plc on a recommended takeover by Manchester-based IT security company NCC Group plc, which was announced this morning. Accumuli is a leading, rapidly growing, UK-based independent specialist, with offices in Basingstoke, Cambridge and Leeds, that advises on IT security and risk management, including issues such as cybercrime, consumerisation of IT, and Big Data. The transaction sees Main Market-listed NCC pay approximately £55m for the Accumuli business in a cash and shares deal.

DLA Piper represented Rsam, a provider of Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) solutions, in the completion of a US$32 million strategic growth investment from JMI Equity, a growth equity firm. Rsam intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations.

Founded in 2002, Rsam delivers unparalleled flexibility for companies to leverage out-of-the-box solutions and build-your-own applications for a wide range of compliance, risk, and security functions.

JMI Equity is a growth equity firm focused on investing in leading software and services companies.

Osborne Clarke has advised Friendship Systems AG on the management buyout together with DNV GL Group.

Friendship Systems is an independent limited company with its seat in Potsdam. The company develops and licenses the software product CAESES, which is used to optimise hulls, ship propellers and turbo-machines. It is the successor to Friendship Systems GmbH, a spin-off of the Technical University of Berlin. At the end of 2008 it became a subsidiary of DNV GL (former known as Germanischer Lloyd).

DLA Piper represented Deep Forest Media, an automated ad-buying platform, in its sale to Rakuten Marketing, the digital marketing division of e-commerce company Rakuten Inc.

The acquisition creates a leading mobile advertising platform through the combination of Deep Forest Media’s cross-device algorithm and Rakuten Inc.’s consumer data.

The Northern California-based DLA Piper team representing Deep Forest Media was led by corporate partner Bradley Gersich and included partner James Telfer, counsel Debra Vernon, and associate Jennifer Lee.

HKBN (Hong Kong Broadband Network), Hong Kong’s largest provider of residential fibre broadband services, by number of residential subscriptions, commenced trading on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited on Thursday, March 12.

Setterwalls advised the Danish IT-company Conscia in the acquisition of Netsafe International AB, a leading consultancy company in Sweden for networking, security and data center technology, also certified as a Cisco Gold Partner.

Setterwalls' team consisted of Håkan Fohlin (responsible partner), Carl Friberg (project manager), Henrik Kjellander (Employment & Labour Law), Karl-Johan Nörklit och Sara Fjell (Tax).

Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Japanese telecommunications and internet company SoftBank Corp. on its acquisition of a further share of interest in Aldebaran Robotics, a French robotics company which designs, manufactures and sells autonomous humanoid robots.