Kirkland & Ellis Represents S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.

A team of Kirkland & Ellis corporate and antitrust lawyers, working daily with S.C.  Johnson's corporate counsel, completed S.C. Johnson's acquisition of the worldwide household insecticides and repellents business of German company Bayer, AG.  The deal has now closed worldwide.

S.C. Johnson acquired Bayer's non-US household insecticide and personal repellent brands (Baygon and Autan), adding to S.C. Johnson's worldwide Raid and Off! product lines.  S.C. Johnson acquired assets in over 40 countries and transferred trademarks and registrations in  over 100 countries.

Regulatory reviews were conducted in over 50 countries.  Ultimately, local antitrust  counsel were hired in 23 countries in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia, local antitrust economists were retained, and substantive antitrust filings and related submissions were made in 17 countries.

It was important to S.C. Johnson and Bayer that the deal close quickly.  Within approximately two months of signing the comprehensive merger agreement, local asset purchase agreements had been signed in 31 countries, government product registrations were transferred, and the transaction approved by 11 key merger control authorities.

S.C. Johnson's internal legal team was headed by General Counsel David Hecker, and included  Gary Akavickas, Floyd Smith, Sally Davis, Sherri Hampel, Steve Mekeel, Sue Tran, Richard Rodrick, and supported by S.C. Johnson’s Tax Department including Robert Randleman, Thomas Howard, Joseph Engle, Lana Handle and Daniel Wenzel.  S.C. Johnson is a family owned and managed business based in Racine, Wisconsin. S.C. Johnson is one of the world's leading manufacturers of household cleaning products and products for home storage, personal care and insect control, marketing such well-known brands as WINDEX®, PLEDGE®, GLADE®, SHOUT®, ZIPLOC®, EDGE® and RAID®.

Tefft Smith and Mark Kovner headed the Kirkland antitrust team, assisted by partners Marimichael Skubel and Pamela Auerbach and supported by Avery Gardiner, Korin Ewing, and Marlynda Vorv.  The Kirkland corporate team included partners Michael G. Timmers, Thomas Verhoeven, Vicki V. Hood, Walter H. Lohmann, William R. Welke, Michael D. Belsley, Glen Hess, Carol Anne Huff, Matthew H. Hurlock, Nathaniel M. Marrs and Lewis T. Putman and associates Jason A. Friedman, Gregory W. Gallagher, Matthew Lovell, Ivo Posluschny and Abrielle Rosenthal. 

Kirkland & Ellis, an international law firm handling litigation, antitrust, transactional, insolvency and intellectual property matters, has over 900 lawyers located in London, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC.

Bayer AG was represented by Clifford Chance (Dusseldorf), a team including Joachim Schutze, Rolf Giebeler, Christoph Witte, Lee K. Van Voorhis, and Ronald Moeder.