Bird & Bird's Corporate team in Helsinki, led by partner Maria Carlsson and assisted by associates Iina-Mari Supperi and Laura Kallinen, has advised the sellers of Visual Components on the sale of the company to German-Chinese robotics giant, KUKA. Corum Group acted as financial advisors to the sellers in close cooperation with the Bird & Bird team.
Advising Vobile Group Limited on its initial public offering and listing on Hong Kong Stock Exchange
The firm has advised Vobile Group Limited (Stock code: 3738) on its initial public offering and listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Simmons & Simmons acted as issuer's Hong Kong counsel to Vobile Group Limited. Silicon Valley-based Vobile Group is the leading provider of online video content protection services.
DLA Piper has advised US technology company BuildingIQ (ASX: BIQ) on its latest capital raising to help fund the company’s growing sales pipeline and 5i Platform services development.
BuildingIQ helps building owners and operators worldwide lower energy use and increase building operations efficiency. The company builds services and solutions based on a core set of technologies incorporated into its 5i cloud-based platform and methodology.
Paul, Weiss advised Chinese internet giant Tencent in its US$604 million investment in Vipshop Holdings Ltd, a major Chinese online discount apparel retailer. Under the terms of the agreement, Tencent and JD.com Inc,, China’s largest e-commerce firm, will invest an aggregate US$863 million cash into Vipshop and will grant Vipshop access to Tencent’s digital wallet platform and JD.com’s mobile application. Tencent and JD.com will subscribe for newly issued Class A ordinary shares of Vipshop.
Osborne Clarke has advised ProSiebenSat.1 on its sale of all shares in Comvel GmbH to lastminute.com Group.
Osborne Clarke advised on all matters regarding the business model as well as IP/IT law and ecommerce related aspects.
Comvel operates the travel website weg.de, one of Germany’s best-known online travel sites and has been a wholly owned subsidiary of ProSiebenSat.1 Group since January 2014.
Simpson Thacher is representing musical.ly, a mobile platform for short form video, in connection with its merger into Bytedance, the Chinese online media giant (a/k/a “Toutiao”), at a price close to US$1 billion. After the closing of the transaction, musical.ly, being a wholly owned subsidiary of Bytedance, will continue to operate as an independent platform, integrating Bytedance's AI technology and leveraging its reach in China and key markets across Asia to enhance musical.ly's offering to users, creators and partners.
DLA Piper has advised Solteq Plc (Nasdaq: STQ1V) on its acquisition of the entire share capital of TM United A/S.
The group, comprising of TM United A/S and its subsidiaries, is known to the market as Theilgaard Mortenssen. The solutions provided by Theilgaard Mortenssen are focused on e-commerce and online customer experience. With the acquisition, Solteq Plc expands its operations into Denmark and Norway.
Uwe Goetker, Jan Hückel and Philipp Kutscher advised online marketer Ad Up Technology AG, which was sold out of the Unister Group insolvency to Axel Springer.
Bird & Bird advised Icelandic start-up Authenteq, on its $1.3 million seed round co-led by London-based Initial Capital and Silicon Valley-based Draper Associates. Berlin-based Cavalry Ventures also invested in this round. The company provides an automatic identity verification and privacy platform which enables users to verify and create their own blockchain-based digital IDs.
Travers Smith LLP has advised Ascential plc on the $17.5 million sale of MEED to GlobalData.
Established in 1957, MEED, has been integral to delivering business information and news, intelligence and analysis on the Middle East economies and activities ever since. Attracting a key senior management audience through its content and activities, MEED is a media brand and publication that covers a spectrum of services that inform. MEED serves the needs of a discerning international business audience in over 70 countries worldwide.