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ProfessionalsJames E. Langston

James E. Langston
Partner

Tel: +1-212-373-3016
Fax: +1-212-492-0016
jlangston@paulweiss.com

Tel: +1-212-373-3016
jlangston@paulweiss.com
New York

1285 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019-6064
Fax: +1-212-492-0016

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Jim Langston is a partner in the Corporate Department and a member of the Mergers & Acquisitions Group. He has significant experience advising companies, boards and board committees on public company mergers, private equity transactions, private acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, activist defense, hostile takeover defense and corporate governance matters.

Jim has significant experience in cross-border and domestic transactions, including conflict of interest transactions, mergers-of-equals, LBOs, joint ventures and carve-out transactions. He also frequently represents companies and their board of directors on activist defense situations.

Jim has been recognized as an industry leader by various publications and directories including Chambers USA, Legal 500 US and IFLR 1000 – clients in Chambers refer to Jim as “very sharp, pragmatic and strategic” and commend his “outstanding judgment.” Jim was named a “Rising Star” by Law360 for his notable track record in M&A.

EXPERIENCE

Jim’s representations have included:

SELECT PUBLIC COMPANY TRANSACTIONS

  • Ecolab in the pending $950 million sale of its surgical solutions business to Medline
  • Thales in its $3.6 billion acquisition of Imperva
  • Saint-Gobain in its acquisition of The Bailey Group of Companies, its C$1.325 billion acquisition of Building Products of Canada, its $928 million acquisition of Kaycan and its $1.4 billion acquisition of Continental Building Products
  • T-Mobile in its up to $1.35 billion acquisition of Ka’ena and its subsidiaries and brands, Mint Mobile, Ultra Mobile and Plum
  • OpenText in the $2.275 billion sale of its AMC/Mainframe business to Rocket Software and in its $6 billion acquisition of Micro Focus
  • General Mills in its $610 million sale of its Helper and Suddenly Salad businesses to Eagle Family Foods, its $8 billion acquisition of Blue Buffalo Pet Products and its sale of Yoplait’s European operations to Sodiaal
  • Sony in its $1 billion, $200 million and $250 million minority investments in Epic Games
  • Sony Interactive Entertainment in its acquisition of Bungie
  • Brookfield in its $5.8 billion acquisition of Scientific Games’ lottery business
  • Sysco in its acquisition of Edward Don & Company, its acquisition of Greco and Sons and its acquisition of The Coastal Companies
  • dMY III in its merger with IonQ to become the first publicly traded pure-play quantum computing company
  • ArcelorMittal in its $3.3 billion sale of ArcelorMittal USA to Cleveland-Cliffs
  • Bemis Company in its $6.8 billion merger with Amcor
  • Songa Offshore in its $3.8 billion combination with Transocean
  • Allergan in its $160 billion announced merger with Pfizer, its $40.5 billion sale of its global generics pharmaceuticals business to Teva and its $2.1 billion acquisition of Kythera Biopharmaceuticals
  • Suntory Holdings in its $16 billion acquisition of Beam
  • Medtronic in its $49.9 billion acquisition of Covidien
  • Biomet and its private equity consortium owners—Blackstone, Goldman Sachs PIA, KKR, and TPG—in Biomet’s $13.35 billion cash and stock merger with Zimmer Holdings
  • Surgical Care Affiliates in its $2.5 billion sale to United Health Group
  • Lafarge in various divestitures in connection with its €40 billion merger of equals with Holcim
  • Acadia Healthcare Company in its $1.2 billion acquisition of CRC Health Group
  • Conversus Capital in its $1.4 billion sale to an affiliate of HarbourVest Partners
  • Westlake Chemical in its acquisition of NAKAN
  • Duravant in its tender offer to acquire Key Technology
  • The shareholders of Levi Strauss & Co., consisting primarily of the descendants of the family of Levi Strauss and their relatives, in connection with the company’s IPO, including the adoption of a dual-class capital structure and new governance structures

HOSTILE M&A TRANSACTIONS, SHAREHOLDER ACTIVISM & CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST TRANSACTIONS

  • Allied Universal in its recommended $5 billion offer to acquire G4S
  • Akamai Technologies in its negotiated settlement with Elliott Management
  • Hyundai Motor Company in its proxy contest against Elliott Management
  • IMAX in share accumulations by Marcato Capital Management
  • Sony Corp. in its defense against an activism campaign by Third Point and its $3.7 billion tender offer to acquire the outstanding shares of Sony Financial Services not already owned by Sony
  • MEDNAX in the activist defense campaign by Starboard Value
  • Assured Guaranty in governance and activism preparedness advice in response to a short-sale activism by David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital
  • Nokian Tyres in activism preparedness advice in response to an activist campaign by Elliott Management
  • Tempur Sealy in its adoption of a limited duration shareholder rights plan during COVID-19 pandemic
  • Actavis in its $70 billion “white knight” acquisition of Allergan
  • The Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Spectrum Brands in the $10 billion combination of Spectrum Brands and HRG Group, the 58% stockholder of Spectrum
  • Westlake Chemical in its unsolicited proposal to acquire Axiall Corporation, related proxy contest and the resulting $3.8 billion negotiated acquisition
  • GlaxoSmithKline in its unsolicited tender offer to acquire Human Genome Sciences and the resulting $3.6 billion negotiated acquisition
  • Genting and Kien Huat in their acquisition of all the outstanding shares of Empire Resorts not already owned by Kien Huat
  • Danfoss A/S in its tender offer to acquire the outstanding shares of Sauer-Danfoss not already owned by Danfoss

SELECT PRIVATE EQUITY M&A TRANSACTIONS

  • TPG Capital in numerous transactions, including its $2.25 billion acquisition of RCN Telecommunications and Grande Communications; its investment in Creative Artists Agency; its recapitalization of RentPath, including the sale of a significant equity stake to Providence Equity Partners; its $1.7 billion acquisition of Savers; and its $525 million take-private acquisition of PRIMEDIA
  • Warburg Pincus in numerous matters, including its acquisitions of Pregis, Universal Services of America and Guardsmark, Wencor Group, Gabriel Brothers and Duravant
  • Bausch + Lomb and Warburg Pincus in the $8.7 billion sale of Bausch + Lomb to Valeant Pharmaceuticals
  • Neiman Marcus, TPG Capital and Warburg Pincus in the $6 billion sale of Neiman Marcus to Ares Management and CPPIB

OTHER SELECT CORPORATE TRANSACTIONS

  • RCN Communications in its $2.3 billion acquisition of Wave Broadband
  • GT Nexus in its $675 million acquisition by Infor
  • Biomet in its acquisition of the global trauma business of DePuy Orthopaedics
  • Universal Services of America in numerous matters, including its merger of equals transaction with Allied Barton and its $131 million acquisition of the security business of ABM Industries
  • Allied Universal in several matters, including its sale of a significant equity stake to CDPQ and investment funds affiliated with Warburg Pincus at a valuation of more than $7 billion, and its $1 billion acquisition of U.S. Security Associates
  • Pregis in its acquisition of SOPRAD
  • Duravant in its acquisition of WECO

FINANCIAL ADVISOR ASSIGNMENTS

  • Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Lazard, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Evercore and PJ Solomon as financial advisor in numerous transactions

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