Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is advising Columbus International Inc and its shareholders on the sale of Columbus to Cable & Wireless Communications plc.
Columbus is a privately-owned diversified telecommunications company with operations in the Caribbean, Central America and the Andean region.
Simpson Thacher is representing Transaction Network Services, Inc. (“TNS”) in the sale of its Payment Gateway Services business to MasterCard Incorporated. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 1990, TNS’ global expertise extends to more than 60 countries across Europe, the Americas and the Asia Pacific regions. TNS has been a trusted provider to the payments industry for more than 20 years. The TNS Payment Gateway Services business provides card-present and card-not-present payment gateways.
Kirkland & Ellis LLP represented bswift, a provider of a technology platform that offers a retail shopping experience for health insurance exchanges and employers nationwide, in its sale announced today to Aetna (NYSE: AET) for approximately $400 million. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust regulatory approval. The acquisition is expected to close before the end of the year.
The Kirkland team includes corporate partners Michael Paley and William Benitez, and tax partner Rachel Cantor.
Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Japanese telecommunications and Internet corporation SoftBank Corp. on a US$100 million investment in Indonesian e-commerce marketplace PT Tokopedia.
The joint investment with American venture capital firm Sequoia Capital in Tokopedia was led by SoftBank and signed on 17 October 2014. The deal would be implemented in two parts—a convertible loan already provided and an equity investment, which will be provided by the end of the year, subject to regulatory approvals.
Publicis Groupe and Sapient have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Publicis Groupe will acquire Sapient in an all-cash transaction for $25.00 per share, or approximately $3.7 billion. Cravath represented Sapient in this transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
Gide has advised Actimos, publisher of Wipolo, and its shareholders on its sale to the Accor group, leading hotel group worldwide. Wipolo is a free app and web service that enables users to organise their travels, share itineraries and discover new destinations thanks to their friends.
Legal counsel to Wipolo:
Gide: Karen Noël (partner) and Pauline Schaeffer (associate)
Allen & Overy LLP has advised listed RNTS Media N.V. in relation to all legal aspects of the acquisition of Fyber GmbH. The acquisition was made in return for a mixed consideration comprising a cash payment and new RNTS shares. Fyber is a leading advertising technology company with more than 120 million customers in over 100 countries.
Beijing-headquartered smartphone maker Xiaomi has secured a USD1 billion loan from 29 banks with an aim to increase its international expansion. Allen & Overy is advising the borrower Xiaomi on this significant loan in the smartphone sector.
The syndicate of lenders to Xiaomi spreads across continents and includes a diverse mix of Chinese, European, North American and Latin American banks. The loan will be split evenly into two USD500 million tranches: a term loan and a revolving credit facility.
Linklaters has advised P&I Personal & Informatik AG on a full takeover by means of a squeeze-out by the financial investor HgCapital. On 2 September 2014, the general meeting of P&I Personal & Informatik AG had already adopted the corresponding resolution to transfer the shares of the minority shareholders to Argon GmbH, which belongs to HgCapital, in return for payment of reasonable cash compensation in the amount of €70.90 per share.
Allen & Overy LLP advises Vivendi on the sale of its wholly-owned subsidiary GVT in Brazil. The Supervisory Board of Vivendi decided to enter into exclusive negotiations with Telefonica, after having received two binding offers: one from Telefonica and another from Telecom Italia.