Shearman & Sterling, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson and Allen & Overy (A&O) are among a raft of top firms to have advised on the $23.3bn (£14.9bn) purchase of Virgin Media by US cable giant Liberty Global.

The cash and stock merger, which is subject to regulatory and stockholder approval, would create the world's largest broadband communications company, covering 25 million customers in 14 countries.

Shearman and Ropes & Gray took the lead roles for Liberty Global alongside financial advisers LionTree and Credit Suisse, with the role marking a first-time appointment for Shearman, which is understood to have won the mandate after a competitive process.

Shearman's team comprised New York M&A partners George Casey and Eliza Swann, London M&A partner Jeremy Kutner, New York tax partner Laurence Bambino and New York executive compensation and employee benefits partner Doreen Lilienfeld

Ropes' team was led by City finance partner Jane Rogers, with support from London co-managing partner Maurice Allen and finance co-chief Mike Goetz.

jane-rogersRogers (pictured) said: "It was a challenge to close the deal in the space of three weeks, but it has been very interesting. The Liberty in-house legal team were crucial in pushing the deal through – they did the all-nighters with us. It is hard to imagine more transformational deals of this size occurring in the near term but I think we will certainly see more consolidation in the cable space."

Hogan Lovells also took a related role, with competition partner Suyong Kim, pensions partner Duncan Buchanan, executive share incentives partner Louise Whitewright and client relationship partner Alan Greenough providing advice to Liberty Global.

Meanwhile, Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy and Fried Frank advised Virgin Media, alongside financial advisers Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

Fried Frank advised on M&A aspects with a team that included New York corporate partner John Sorkin, and City corporate partner Bob Mollen, one of the firm's client relationship partners, as well as London corporate partner Richard May and New York M&A senior counsel Arthur Fleischer.

Milbank's team included London corporate partner Mark Stamp, securities partner Tim Peterson, banking partner Suhrud Mehta and City managing partner Russell Jacobs on tax as well as fellow City partner Suhrud Mehta, with New York litigation partner Alan Stone advising the Virgin Media board.

Other law firms to win roles on the multibillion-dollar deal included A&O and Latham & Watkins, which acted for the arranging banks: Credit Suisse, BNP Paribas, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The A&O team comprised banking partner Philip Bowden, finance partner Jonathan Brownson, high yield partner Kevin Muzilla, structured finance partner Robin Harvey and debt finance partner Greg Brown, with capital markets advice provided by derivatives partner Daniel Shurman.

In a statement, Liberty Global president and CEO Mike Fries said: "Adding Virgin Media to our large and growing European operations is a natural extension of the value creation strategy we've been successfully using for over seven years. After the deal, roughly 80% of Liberty Global's revenue will come from just five attractive and strong countries – the UK, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands."

Virgin Media was formed in 2006 following NTL's £962.4m acquisition of Virgin Mobile, a deal on which Fried Frank also advised.

Other firms to have advised Liberty in the past include Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which in 2011 acted alongside Ropes on its acquisition of Germany's Kabel Baden-Wuerttemberg (KBW) for $4.5bn (£2.9bn).

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