Photo of Matthew J. Bobby

Matthew J. Bobby

Partner, Cravath

212-474-1128mbobby@cravath.com

Two Manhattan West
375 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY 10001

View Firm Biography

Matthew J. Bobby focuses his practice on executive compensation and employee benefit aspects of complex mergers and acquisitions, spin‑offs, initial public offerings and other business transactions. He also regularly advises clients on the design, negotiation and implementation of incentive compensation arrangements and the negotiation of executive employment and separation agreements, as well as on SEC disclosure regarding such arrangements.

Bobby’s clients have included ADT, AerCap, Afterpay, AmerisourceBergen, AngloGold Ashanti, Aras, AveXis, BDT, British American Tobacco, Canadian National Railway, Centrica, Costamare, Crown Castle, CyrusOne, DiaSorin, FactSet, GreenSky, Hasbro, Hearst, Honeywell, Illumina, Johnson & Johnson, Just Eat Takeaway.com, Kenvue, Light & Wonder, Lindsay Goldberg, Martin Marietta, National Grid, Northrop Grumman, Novartis, Olin, Owl Rock, Peugeot, RWE, SMBC Aviation Capital, Starwood Hotels, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Time Warner, US Foods, Viacom, Viatris and WestRock.

Lawdragon Honors

Honor Year Practice
The 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Corporate Employment Lawyers 2026 Executive Compensation & Benefits
The 2025 Lawdragon 500 Leading Corporate Employment Lawyers 2025 Executive Compensation & Benefits
The 2024 Lawdragon 500 X – The Next Generation 2024 Executive Compensation & Benefits
Lawdragon 500 X – The Next Generation 2023 Executive Compensation & Benefits

Bobby’s notable matters include representing:

      • Fitch Learning, a subsidiary of Hearst, in its pending acquisition of Moody’s Analytics Learning Solutions and the Canadian Securities Institute;
      • Martin Marietta in its pending exchange of certain assets with Quikrete, its acquisition of Premier Magnesia, its $2.05 billion acquisition of aggregates operations from Blue Water Industries, the $2.1 billion sale of its South Texas cement business and related concrete operations to CRH, the proposed sale of its California cement plant and related terminals, the sale of certain West Coast cement and concrete operations to CalPortland and its $2.3 billion acquisition of Lehigh West Region;
      • Lindsay Goldberg and its portfolio companies in connection with multiple transactions, including Amentum’s Reverse Morris Trust merger with Jacobs’ Critical Mission Solutions and Cyber and Intelligence businesses, creating a combined organization with $13 billion in revenue; the sale of Liquid Tech Solutions to Velocity Rail Solutions, a Wind Point Partners portfolio company; the acquisition of Golden State Foods; the acquisition of The Kleinfelder Group; Summit Interconnect’s acquisition of Royal Circuit Solutions; and the sale of Pixelle to H.I.G. Capital;
      • AngloGold Ashanti in its pending C$197 million acquisition of Augusta Gold and its corporate restructuring and change to domicile and primary listing location;
      • Illumina in its $8 billion acquisition and subsequent spin‑off of GRAIL and its pending acquisition of SomaLogic;
      • Costamare in the spin-off of Costamare Bulkers;
      • Bridge Investment Group’s special committee in the $1.5 billion acquisition by Apollo;
      • Light & Wonder in its $850 million acquisition of Grover Charitable Gaming, the $6.05 billion sale of SG Lottery to Brookfield and $1.2 billion sale of OpenBet to Endeavor, its acquisition of the remaining stake in SciPlay, the $925.5 million sale of a 34.9% stake to institutional investors and its $363.5 million carve-out IPO of SciPlay;
      • FactSet in its $246.5 million acquisition of LiquidityBook and its acquisition of Irwin;
      • Johnson & Johnson in numerous matters, including its $14.6 billion acquisition of Intra‑Cellular Therapies, its $2 billion acquisition of Ambrx, the IPO and separation of Kenvue, its $16.6 billion acquisition of Abiomed, its $6.5 billion acquisition of Momenta, its $3.4 billion acquisition of Auris Health, the $2.8 billion sale of its Advanced Sterilization Products business to Fortive, the $2.1 billion sale of its LifeScan business to Platinum Equity, the $1.045 billion sale of its Codman Neurosurgery business to Integra and its $30 billion acquisition of Actelion;
      • Just Eat Takeaway.com in the sale of Grubhub to Wonder;
      • Thermo Fisher Scientific in its $20.9 billion acquisition of PPD and its $3.1 billion acquisition of Olink;
      • Consolidated Communications’ special committee in the $3.1 billion acquisition by Searchlight and BCI;
      • ADT in the $1.6 billion sale of its commercial business to GTCR;
      • Hasbro in its $4 billion acquisition of Entertainment One (eOne), the sale of its eOne film and TV business to Lionsgate and the sale of eOne Music to Blackstone;
      • BDT and its affiliates in connection with multiple transactions, including BDT’s combination with MSD Partners and the take‑private acquisition of Weber, valuing Weber at $3.7 billion;
      • Owl Rock in Fifth Season Investments’ $220 million acquisition of Fifth Season Financial and the life insurance investment assets of Chapford Capital II and Chapford Diversified Strategies Fund;
      • RWE in its $6.8 billion acquisition of the Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses; 
      • SMBC Aviation Capital in its $6.7 billion acquisition of Goshawk Aviation;
      • CyrusOne in its $15 billion acquisition by KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners;
      • GreenSky in its $2.24 billion acquisition by Goldman Sachs;
      • Afterpay in its $29 billion acquisition by Block;
      • Canadian National Railway in its proposed $33.6 billion combination with Kansas City Southern;
      • National Grid in its £7.8 billion acquisition of Western Power Distribution and the $3.8 billion sale of Narragansett Electric;
      • AerCap in its $30 billion acquisition of GE Capital Aviation Services;
      • AmerisourceBergen in its $6.5 billion acquisition of Walgreens’ Alliance Healthcare businesses;
      • Time Warner in its $109 billion sale to AT&T;
      • Northrop Grumman in the $3.4 billion sale of its federal IT and mission support business to Veritas Capital;
      • Centrica in its $3.625 billion sale of Direct Energy to NRG Energy;
      • Just Eat Takeaway.com in its $7.3 billion acquisition of Grubhub;
      • Novartis in the $29.8 billion spin‑off of Alcon;
      • US Foods in its $500 million convertible preferred equity investment from KKR and its $970 million acquisition of Smart Foodservice;
      • Olin in its $5 billion tax-efficient Reverse Morris Trust merger with the chlorine value chain business of Dow Chemical;
      • Peugeot in its $50 billion merger with Fiat Chrysler to form Stellantis;
      • Viacom’s transaction committee in the $30 billion merger with CBS;
      • WestRock in its $4.9 billion acquisition of KapStone;
      • Starwood Hotels in its $13.3 billion sale to Marriott;
      • British American Tobacco in its $97 billion acquisition of Reynolds American;
      • Crown Castle in several transactions, including its $7.1 billion acquisition of Lightower; and
      • Mylan in its $9.9 billion acquisition of Meda, its proposal to acquire Perrigo in a transaction valued at approximately $35 billion and its $750 million acquisition, through its Indian subsidiary Mylan Laboratories, of certain female healthcare businesses from Famy Care.