International legal practice Osborne Clarke has advised the management team of global socially-led creative agency, We Are Social, on its acquisition of the Middle East’s largest social media agency, Socialize.

With offices in New York, London, Paris, Milan, Munich, Berlin, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing and Sydney, this majority-stake acquisition means that We Are Social will now extend its network into the Middle East and North Africa.  The alliance will bring We Are Social’s team to 700+ people working from 11 offices in nine countries.

DLA Piper represented Blackpoint Cyber, a Maryland-based cyber security company offering unique patented lateral spread detection and network visualization, in the recent completion of its US$6 million Series A financing. The round was led by Adelphi Capital and Telcom Ventures with additional participation by Maryland Venture Fund.

The DLA Piper team representing Blackpoint Cyber was led by partner Matthew Gorra (Baltimore) and associate Jay Buchanan (Austin).

DLA Piper represented Centric Software, a venture capital-backed technology platform driving digital transformation with software innovation in the fashion, apparel, luxury and retail sectors, in entering into a definitive agreement to sell a majority stake to Dassault Systèmes.

The transaction aims to accelerate the digital transformation of companies seeking solutions for the increasingly complex development of collections that respond to today's on-trend and on-demand consumers.

Sidley represented Babytree Group (Babytree), a leading online parenting services platform in China, on a strategic investment by Alibaba Group. After this round of financing, Babytree’s estimated valuation is around RMB14 billion (approximately US$2.19 billion). This strategic partnership will help boost Babytree’s development in various fronts, particularly in the areas of e-commerce, C2M services (customer-to-maker), advertising sales, paid expert knowledge, new on-line and off-line retail, and other related maternal & child businesses.

Davis Polk is advising Comcast Corporation on its superior proposal to acquire the businesses that Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. has agreed to sell to The Walt Disney Company for $35.00 per share in cash. The superior proposal represents a premium of approximately 19% to the value of Disney’s all-stock offer as of 12:00 p.m., noon (Eastern Time) on June 13, 2018.

International legal practice Osborne Clarke has advised Smoothwall, a Tenzing Private Equity portfolio company, on the acquisition of Future Digital, a digital safeguarding business.

A market-leading provider of dynamic web filtering technology for the education and public sectors, Smoothwall has an established UK presence and a footprint in the US, covering over 10,000 schools worldwide.

International law firm Pinsent Masons has advised STS Group AG on its admission to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Prime Standard) in a deal valuing the business at €144m.

STS Group AG is one of the world's leading suppliers of interior and exterior parts for commercial vehicles. Its components are found in vehicles produced by leading commercial vehicle manufacturers and major international automobile manufacturers (OEMs) as Volvo Trucks, Daimler Trucks, Scania, IVECO, and FCA.

DLA Piper has advised atHome Group, the leader in online advertising in Luxembourg, on the acquisition of Luxauto.

Luxauto is the Luxembourg leader in online advertisements for new and second-hand vehicles.

By acquiring Luxauto.lu, atHome Group has consolidated its position as the market leader in online ad portals in the Grand Duchy.

The DLA Piper team was led by Luxembourg Managing Partner Catherine Pogorzelski and Counsel Nicolas Marchand.

On 8th June 2018, King & Wood Mallesons (“KWM”) advised Foxconn Industrial Internet Co., Ltd. (“FII”) on its successful listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. As one of the top manufacturing unicorn enterprises, FII issued 1.96 billion shares with an offering price of RMB 13.77 per share, raising more than RMB 27.1 billion. The successful completion marks one of the largest A-share IPOs in the past three years to the date, and ranks as the 11th largest listing of A-share capital markets in China.