Skadden, Latham Take Lead in PayPal's Largest Ever Acquisition
The two Tech Deal Department of the Year finalists landed roles advising PayPal and Honey Science Corp. as PayPal moves into the consumer deal-finding space.
November 21, 2019 at 04:39 PM
3 minute read
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Latham & Watkins led the way in payment processing giant PayPal's $4 billion acquisition of retail deal-hunting app Honey Science Corp. on Wednesday.
The deal is PayPal's largest single acquisition to date.
The Skadden team representing PayPal was led by corporate partner Michael Mies and associates Colleen Lee and Joseph Casey; tax partner Sean Shimamoto; antitrust partners Ingrid Vandenborre and Maria Raptis; intellectual property partner John Neukom and counsel Ken Kumayama; and executive compensation and benefits counsel Thomas Asmar and associates Jameson Frazier and Anne Villanueva. All but Vandenborre (Brussels) and Raptis (New York) are based in Palo Alto.
The Latham team for Honey Science was led by corporate partners Alex Voxman and Jordan Miller and senior associate David Ajalat; compensation and benefits partner Larry Seymour; tax partner Grace Lee; technology transactions partner Ghaith Mahmood; and antitrust partner Hanno Kaiser. Lee and Kaiser are based out of San Francisco, while the rest of the team is based in Los Angeles, where Honey Science calls home.
Skadden has a history with PayPal, advising the company in several acquisitions including the $400 million 2018 acquisition of Hyperwallet and the 2018 buy of iZettle.
Mies in particular has worked closely with PayPal, representing them in a $750 million investment in online auction company MercadoLibre and a $500 million investment in ride-hailing service Uber.
Latham's lead, Voxman, lists having done "preferred stock financings and general corporate matters" for Honey Science on his firm bio.
The deal helps get PayPal into the deal-finding portion of the online shopping process. Currently the company competes mostly in the "check-out page" realm with other apps such as Apple Pay and Facebook Pay, the latter of which analysts say has the potential to crush both PayPal and Apple Pay.
"Honey is amongst the most transformative acquisitions in PayPal's history," said Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal, in a statement. "It provides a broad portfolio of services to simplify the consumer shopping experience, while at the same time making it more affordable and rewarding,"
Honey Science claims to have 17 million monthly users and over $100 million in revenue. The company also states that it has saved its customers a collective $2 billion over its existence. And unlike many startups, it is actually profitable, according to PayPal.
The deal is expected to close in Q1 2020.
|Read More
Tech Deal Department of the Year Finalist: Skadden
Tech Deal Department of the Year Finalist: Latham & Watkins
Deal Watch: Wachtell, Kirkland Lead the Way as M&A Continues Slow Roll Into Q3
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