International

Manhattan duo Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Willkie Farr & Gallagher have landed lead roles on the $13.9bn (£7.1bn) acquisition of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) by technology giant Hewlett-Packard (HP).

Cleary advised HP, fielding a team led by New York-based M&A partners Christopher Austin, Benet O’Reilly and Victor Lewkow.

EDS instructed Willkie Farr, with the US outfit fielding a team led by firm co-vice chairman Tom Cerabino – who also co-heads the firm’s corporate and M&A practice groups – and corporate partner Serge Benchetrit.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is advising HP on antitrust and employment aspects of the deal outside the US, with antitrust, competition and trade partner Jenny Connolly leading the team for the City giant.

Howrey, meanwhile, is advising EDS on antitrust aspects, with Roxann Henry the lead partner in Washington DC and Tom McQuail spearheading the team in London and Brussels.

The deal, which was announced today (13 May) and is excepted to close in the second half of this year, comes after HP last year launched a review of its US advisers under general counsel Michael Holston.

The combined group will form an IT services giant with 210,000 employees globally and annual revenues of $38bn (£20bn).

HP intends to establish a new business group, to be branded EDS – an HP company, which will be headquartered at EDS’ existing executive offices in Texas. The business will continue to be led by EDS chair and chief executive Ronald Rittenmeyer, who will join HP’s executive council and report directly HP chief Mark Hurd.

More deal news

Latest Jobs

• Private Equity C. £200,000 - Immediate Partnership
• Funds PSL (Full or Part time)
• Company Secretary - Vodafone
• *** CORPORATE LAWYER-MANAGE INDIAN DESK ***
• GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY COMPANY – ASSISTANT GENERAL COUNSEL EMEA - LONDON
• *** TOP UK FIRM seeks CONTRACT EMPLOYMENT LAWYER ***