Weil Gotshal & Manges, DLA Piper and Linklaters have taken roles on a $2bn (£1.2bn) merger which will create the largest pay TV company in the Middle East and North Africa, reports The Am Law Daily.

Weil Gotshal, which opened its first office in the Middle East this January in Dubai, advised Showtime Arabia on the deal, which sees it join forces with TV company The Orbit Group.

M&A partners Mark Soundy (pictured) and Peter King and associates Natalie Gray, Alicia Speake and Elizabeth Todd handled the transaction for the firm. Showtime is a subsidiary of Kuwaiti investment company Kipco, a longstanding Weil client that launched the station in 1996 as part of a joint venture with Viacom.

"This is a landmark deal and involved sophisticated M&A advice based broadly on European standards carefully tailored to suit regional and cultural sensitivities," says Soundy. "[That] is a key part of our service offering in the [Persian] Gulf."

Peter Monk, the head of DLA Piper's Middle East corporate practice, conducted due diligence for Showtime on the deal along with associate Govind Naidu. The firm recently cut 9% of its staff in the region with reductions in the Dubai office accounting for more than one-third of the total departures from the firm.

The Riyadh-based Mawarid Group, which owns Orbit, was represented by a team of lawyers from Linklaters on the merger. Ewan Cameron, the firm's regional senior partner in Dubai, advised Orbit along with associates James Wootton and Ben Davies.

Based out of Bahrain and Dubai, the newly-merged company will offer 70 exclusive channels. The new operation will draw on the programming, marketing, distribution and subscriber management operations of both companies. The deal is expected to close on 1 August.

The Am Law Daily is the website of The American Lawyer, Legal Week's US sister title.