Mergers and Acquisitions

Kelley Drye’s M&A teams support you at every stage of your transaction, building market share through both expansion and consolidation and creating value through operating improvements and synergies. You’ll receive rigorous planning and attention to detail—starting in the pre-acquisition phase.

Our lawyers handle deals of all sizes and complexities. But our sweet spot is serving as a strategic partner and adviser to middle-market companies, both public and private, in the United States and around the world.

Combining the breadth of a large, multi-service firm and the agility, efficiency, and attention of a boutique, we offer integrated, streamlined services. For each transaction, we assemble a team with the right mix of legal and regulatory knowledge, experience in sophisticated transactions, and understanding of your business and industry so you can navigate critical issues and close deals that meet your long-term objectives.

Acquisitions

We help both domestic and foreign clients acquire U.S.-based businesses, whether through stock, asset, or merger structures, and whether leveraged or not. We help clients with the acquisition and sale of distressed properties.

Divestitures

Clients contemplating divestitures look to our team for advice in all aspects of these deals, from data rooms, information memoranda, and documenting requests for bids to confidentiality agreements as well as negotiating and drafting documentation.

Our focus on middle-market companies translates to a wealth of experience in handling exit transactions for founders or families selling their interests in the companies they created and the unique issues and agreements they face.

Strategic Alliances

We work with clients in all phases of joint ventures and strategic alliances, from the initial expression of interest through closing.

From the beginning, we help to identify appropriate transaction structures, define the joint venture’s mission, and contextualize the new venture within our clients’ and their partners’ other ongoing activities.

Corporate Defense

We provide defensive strategies in hostile offer scenarios, including so-called poison pills and shark repellents for public companies.

International Transactions

We advise both U.S. and global companies in cross-border acquisitions, dispositions, and strategic alliances. Our lawyers have extensive experience in obtaining regulatory clearances from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and other regulatory agencies.