Mergers and Acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions are one of our firm's core strengths. We have consistently represented either purchasers or targets in Israel's largest M&A transactions, and we have been ranked as Israel's leading M&A practice in all international and domestic publications. We have acted as lead counsel for some of the world's largest multinational corporations and private equity funds in their Israeli acquisitions, as well as local counsel for leading international law firms in their Israeli transactions. We also act as lead counsel for Israeli and other clients in their cross-border acquisitions in the US, Europe, and the Far East. Notably, our M&A practice has been recognized as Israel’s leader by Chambers & Partners, Legal 500, PLC Which lawyer? Yearbook and others.

In the course of our M&A practice, we have created innovative and novel transaction structures for our clients. In particular, we pioneered the use of reverse triangular mergers under Israel’s Companies Law (which took effect in 2000) as a tool for foreign purchasers to acquire public Israeli companies. Our M&A transactions have included forward and reverse triangular mergers, stock acquisitions, asset purchases, leveraged buy-outs, divestitures, carve-outs, auctions, tender offers, plans of arrangement and other transactions involving a change of control. Our services include advice on structuring, negotiation of transaction documents, due diligence, preparation of disclosure documents, preparation of shareholder communications, governmental filings and various other matters required to consummate mergers and acquisitions.

We have handled a significant number of M&A transactions in various regulated industries, including the insurance, banking, asset management, pension and provident funds, telecommunications and cable television industries.

Representative experience:

Representation of NICE Systems in its acquisitions of Fortent and Orsus for approximately $100 million.
Representation of St. Jude Medical in its acquisition of MediGuide Inc. for $300 million.
$4 billion acquisition by Berkshire-Hathaway Corporation of Iscar.
Sale of M-Systems to SanDisk in a share transaction valued at $1.6 billion.
Representation of Ashmore Fund in the $1.25 billion acquisition of ECI Telecom.
Acquisition of Sheer Networks by Cisco for $97 million.
Acquisition of Medcon, a public company traded in Tel Aviv, by McKesson Corporation for $105 million.
$2.7 billion in stock acquisition of Galileo Technologies, an Israeli Nasdaq traded chip manufacturer, by Marvell.
$625 million purchase of Shopping.com, a shopping comparison site, by eBay.
$600 million in cash acquisition of the Israeli cable business of the Aurec Group and SBC Communications, by a consortium of domestic operators.
Purchase by DeutschePost/DHL of Flying Cargo for an undisclosed amount.
Representation of State of Israel in sale of controlling interest in Bank Leumi.
$230 million purchase by Hewlett-Packard (HP) of ScitexVision.
Representation of Winbond Corporation of Taiwan in the acquisition of assets from National Semiconductor.
$230 million in cash acquisition of Tecnomatix Technologies, an Israeli Nasdaq traded company providing software for manufacturing process planning, by UGS.
$220 million in cash and stock acquisition of Oshap Technologies, an Israeli Nasdaq traded company, by SunGard.
The acquisition of Golden Pages, the leading publisher in Israel of yellow page directories, by Markstone Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount.
The acquisition of Golden Lines, a leading provider of international calling services, by Telecom Italia for an undisclosed amount.
$150 million private placement by L.M. Partners L.P. (an affiliate of Viola Partners) and Ofer Hi-Tech of a controlling stake in Lumenis, an Israeli public company formerly traded on NASDAQ and a leading provider of laser machines for various medical and aesthetic purposes and a related bank debt restructuring.
$140 million purchase of Modem-Art by Agere Systems (now LSI Corporation).
$140 million cash acquisition of Followap by NeuStar.
$117 million purchase by Hewlett-Packard (HP) of Nur Macroprinters.
$110 million in cash acquisition of Buzzmetrics, an Israeli provider of Internet usage analysis solutions, by The Nielsen Group.
$100 million acquisition of Paradigm Geophysical by Fox Paine.
$80 million acquisition of OptiSystems, an optimization software provider, by BMC Software, in 2000, that constituted the first merger transaction under The Israeli Companies Law.
$70 million purchase of a controlling stake in Formula Systems, a leading IT provider traded in Israel and on Nasdaq, by Emblaze, a public company traded on the London Stock Exchange.
Purchase of Orca Interactive, an Israeli provider of IPTV solutions traded on AIM in London, by a subsidiary of France Telecom, the first merger of an Israeli AIM traded company.
The acquisition of TransChip, an imaging chip design company, by Samsung Electronics.
The acquisition of Oramir Semiconductors, by Applied Materials.
The acquisition of high-tech portfolio of Mofet Technology, a public traded venture capital fund, by a major secondary fund.
Sale by the Fishman Group of 012 Golden Lines to Smile Communications for $140 million.
Stock swap transaction valued at $80 million between the Fishman Group and Telecom Italia relating to shares in two telecommunications companies (Mediterranean Nautilus and Elletra TLC).
Acquisition of Alliance Tire Company, an Israeli public company, by Warburg Pincus for $46 million.
Representation of Euler Hermes (of the Allianz Group), in its purchase of one third of the holdings of B.S.S.CH - The Israeli Credit Insurance Company.
Representation of Amdocs in its $45 million acquisition of Jacobs Rimell.
Representation of Amdocs in its $275 million acquisition of Qpass.
Representation of Amdocs in its acquisition of Longshine in China.
Representation of ExLibris in sale to Francisco Partners for $60M and subsequently to Leeds for $150 million.
Representation of Amdocs in its acquisition of Sigvalue Technologies for $54 million.
Represented Actimize in acquisition by NICE Systems for $282 million.
Represented Amdocs in the acquisition of Cramer Systems Group for approximately $375 million.