DLA Piper has advised the British holding company Tiparea Ltd. and the British investor Gareth Quarry on the sale of the majority interest in the Cologne-based legal publishing house JUVE Verlag. Quarry had held the majority interest since the founding of the company in 1997. The acquisition was preceded by a bidding process, at the end of which seven press and specialist publishing houses had submitted a bid. Finally, the award was made to the specialist publishing house NWB. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price for the takeover, which is effective retrospectively from the beginning of the year.

JUVE Verlag is a press publisher that reports on the commercial law market in Germany and Austria through its own journals and handbooks as well as on its website. Since 1997, the publisher has been reporting regularly on law firms that operate in Germany and Austria in a business advisory capacity. Publications include a weekly e-mail newsletter, the monthly magazine on the legal market entitled JUVE Rechtsmarkt and the annual JUVE handbook of commercial law firms.

Based in the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Herne, the publisher NWB Verlag primarily focuses on tax and commercial law, together with accounting. The family-owned company is now being run by the third generation and currently has some 270 employees. The acquisition of JUVE means that staff numbers will now be increasing by more than 50. In a joint effort with NWB, JUVE aims to develop its journalistic business-related products within the German and Austrian market for lawyers.

The DLA Piper team led by Partner Dr Benjamin Parameswaran and Counsel Dr Isaschar Nicolaysen (both Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), and included the partners Dr Konrad Rohde (Tax, Frankfurt), Dr Kai Bodenstedt (Employment), counsel Dr Annemarie Bloss (IPT), and associate Johann-Friedrich Fleisch (Corporate, all Hamburg), as well as legal director Lynda Finan (Tax, Leeds).