Skadden, Kirkland & Ellis Lead on $2 Billion Lawson Software Takeover
St. Paul, Minn.-based Lawson Software, Inc., announced Tuesday it agreed to be acquired by GGC Software Holdings, Inc., in a deal valued at about $2 billion.
GGC--an affiliate of San Francisco-based private equity firms Golden Gate Capital and Infor--will pay Lawson stockholders $11.25 a share for the business software maker. The deal represents a 14 percent premium over Lawson's closing price on March 7, the last day of trading before market speculation over a potential takeover.
Lawson announced that it chose a team from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to serve as outside counsel. The Skadden team was led by New York M&A partners Marc Packer and Richard Grossman. Lawson's general counsel Bruce McPheeters was the company's primary in-house lawyer.
In 2005, Skadden advised Lawson's financial adviser Lehman Brothers Inc. on the $480 million acquisition of Swedish software developer Intentia International.
Golden Gate Capital and Infor turned to longtime counsel Kirkland & Ellis to acquire Lawson. Kirkland's team includes San Francisco corporate partners Stephen Oetgen, Jeremy Veit, and Patrick Huard. Leveraged acquisitions partners Christopher Butler and Joshua Korff also advised. Oetgen also advised Golden Gate Capital on multiple past acquisitions, including the buyout firm's $1 billion deal for Aspect Communications, Inc., in 2005, and its 2007 purchase of Aeroflex, Inc.
Lawson's board members, who own about 9 percent of the company's shares, already voted in favor of the transaction, which is expected to close in the third quarter.
Reuters noted that this agreement comes at a time when small and midsize producers of business software are considering consolidation as they struggle to compete with larger rivals like Oracle Corporation and Germany's SAP AG.
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