Freshfields and Wilson Sonsini lead on Cinven's €1.7bn GoDaddy deal
Magic circle firm and US tech leader advise on private equity sale
December 07, 2016 at 06:23 AM
2 minute read
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati have taken lead roles on private equity firm Cinven's sale of web services provider HEG to US competitor GoDaddy for €1.69bn (£1.44bn).
GoDaddy is the largest cloud computing platform dedicated to serving small and independent businesses. Similarly, HEG focuses on providing data hosting services to small and medium-sized business across Europe.
Freshfields is acting for longstanding client Cinven on the deal, having advised the private equity firm on its initial acquisition of HEG in 2013 for £438m.
Freshfields London corporate partner David Higgins (pictured) and Munich corporate partner Wessel Heukamp are leading the firm's team on the deal.
Wilson Sonsini is acting for its client GoDaddy on the deal, with a team led out of its Palo Alto office. The firm's team includes corporate partners Michael Ringler, Jeffrey Saper and Allison Spinner, employee benefits partner David Thomas, competition partners Paul McGeown, Scott Sher and Michael Rosenthal, and IP partner Parag Gheewala.
Higgins advised Cinven on the 2013 acquisition alongside London corporate partner Adrian Maguire.
Speaking to Legal Week, Higgins said: "We did the original transaction on the way in and we have been very active for them doing the bolt ons, it has been a true buy and build story for Cinven. It is nice to see it from the start, do the buy and build and then do the exit.
"We had our guys in New York helping us as well as myself and Wessel in Germany, so it was a classic cross-border production by Freshfields".
Maguire is to replace Higgins as co-head of the firm's global financial investors group from 1 January 2017, with Higgins returning to full-time client work.
This April, Higgins and Heukamp were both part of a Freshfields team that acted for Cinven on its €1.2bn (£1bn) acquisition of travel company TUI Group's hotel booking platform, Hotelbeds Group.
Wilson Sonsini has previously acted for GoDaddy, including advising on its 2015 IPO, which raised $460m (£365). Saper, the firm's vice-chair, also led on that deal alongside corporate partner Spinner.
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