Orrick's ex-Heller team seals $700m web company sell-off
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe's newly-hired UK technology team has closed its first deal since joining from Heller Ehrman - sealing the $700m (£472m) sale of web company MessageLabs. Corporate partner Richard Eaton led the team advising longstanding client MessageLabs, which provides messaging and web security services, on its acquisition by software company Symantec. Eaton began working on the deal while he was a partner at now-defunct US law firm Heller, with the transaction closing just three weeks after he joined Orrick as part of a three-partner team at the beginning of November.
November 26, 2008 at 09:34 PM
2 minute read
US firm's newly-acquired Heller technology team seals $700m MessageLabs sale
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe's newly-hired UK technology team has closed its first deal since joining from Heller Ehrman – sealing the $700m (£472m) sale of web company MessageLabs.
Corporate partner Richard Eaton led the team advising longstanding client MessageLabs, which provides messaging and web security services, on its acquisition by software company Symantec.
Eaton began working on the deal while he was a partner at now-defunct US law firm Heller, with the transaction closing just three weeks after he joined Orrick as part of a three-partner team at the beginning of November.
The deal marks Eaton's second major transaction for MessageLabs in recent years, following the spin-out last year of its internet service provider division Star Technology.
Symantec turned to longstanding adviser Latham & Watkins for the MessageLabs acquisition with London corporate partner Graeme Sloan leading the firm's team.
Antitrust and trade regulation advice was provided by London partner Omar Shah, Brussels-based Susanne Zuehlke and Washington partner William McGlone. London partner Luke Grubb and Chicago partner David Nelson led the team providing intellectual property (IP) advice, with partners Stephen Brown and Sean Finn advising on employment and tax respectively.
Eaton told Legal Week: "There are always going to be people attempting to breach security through emails so this is an area that the big boys are playing in – it is not a sector that is affected too badly by market conditions."
Sloan said: "I have done a number of IP-led deals for the firm and there seems to be a relative amount of deal activity in this sector at the moment. The team from Heller – and then Orrick – did a fabulous job considering the uncertain times they were going through – credit where credit is due."
Legal Week revealed in October that Eaton was joining Orrick with fellow Heller partners Chris Grew and Struan Penwarden and three associates following Heller's dissolution at the end of September.
The team had only joined Heller at the beginning of 2007 from rival US practice Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.
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