Stuttgart – Book retailer Wittwer has set a course for the future by joining forces with Thalia. Best known for its flagship store on Stuttgart’s Schloßplatz, Wittwer celebrated its 150th anniversary last year. Partnering with a major industry player provides Wittwer with new opportunities for responding to changes in media behaviour and to the demands of digitisation. The transaction is currently awaiting approval from Germany’s Federal Cartel Office. The parties agreed not to disclose details of the deal.

The Firm recently represented Technology Crossover Ventures (“TCV”) in its strategic partnership with Sportradar, the global leader in analyzing and leveraging the power of sports data. TCV, along with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (“CPPIB”), will acquire a stake in Sportradar from EQT Partners and certain minority shareholders in a transaction valued at approximately €2.1 billion (approximately US$2.4 billion). Carsten Koerl, founder and CEO, will retain his entire ownership position and EQT will reinvest a portion of its sale proceeds into Sportradar.

Siemens and Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the deployment of MindSphere, Siemens’ cloud-based open Internet of Things (IoT) operating system, on Alibaba Cloud.  The two companies will leverage each other’s technology and industry resources to build a unique IoT solution to support Industrie 4.0, China’s manufacturing upgrade and transformation and other industrial Internet initiatives, and to jointly foster the industrial IoT in China.  The implementation of MindSphere on Alibaba Cloud will p

Stuttgart – Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) and Boerse Stuttgart (Stuttgart Stock Exchange) are establishing a joint venture called DEBTVISION GmbH to digitise the issuance of promissory notes. Corporate clients will be able to use the new digital platform to place promissory note loans (Schuldscheindarlehen) themselves without the need for an arranger, and to select from the interested investors.

Gilbert + Tobin is delighted to have advised Telstra in connection with a new venture capital fund launched by Telstra Ventures, the venture capital arm of Telstra. The new fund is backed by Telstra and HarbourVest, one of the world’s largest private equity investment firms, and will focus on early to late stage venture investment opportunities in the US and the Asia Pacific.

Slaughter and May, as part of an integrated team with Hengeler Mueller in Germany and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek in The Netherlands, is advising Tata Steel Group on its definitive agreements to enter into a 50/50 Joint Venture with thyssenkrupp AG to create a leading European steel enterprise by combining the flat steel businesses of the two companies in Europe and the steel mill services of the thyssenkrupp group. The Joint Venture would have annual shipments of around 21 million tonnes of flat steel products and have a pro forma turnover of around €15 billion per year.

Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Allianz Real Estate, the global real estate investment and asset manager of Allianz group, on the creation of a market leading student accommodation real estate joint venture in London with Greystar Real Estate Partners, the global rental housing leader, and Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSPIB), one of Canada's largest pension investment managers. This is Allianz`s first direct equity investment into the real estate sector in the UK.

TLT has advised Thrive Renewables on a joint venture (JV) with Aura Power to supply medium and large energy users with free battery storage installations in return for revenue share.