Photo of Robert I. Townsend III

Robert I. Townsend III

Partner, Cravath

212-474-1964rtownsend@cravath.com

Two Manhattan West
375 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY 10001

View Firm Biography

Robert I. Townsend III is Co-Chair of the Global Mergers and Acquisitions Practice. His practice focuses primarily on all types of M&A transactions, corporate governance matters and activist defense.

Townsend’s clients have included ADT, altafiber, AmerisourceBergen, Anheuser‑Busch InBev, Aon, Atlas Air, Brink’s, Brunswick, Cable One, Canadian National Railway, City Brewing, Conduent, Crown Castle, DiaSorin, Frontier Communications, GreenSky, J.D. Power, Johnson & Johnson, Kenvue, Light & Wonder, MacAndrews & Forbes, Martin Marietta, Nestlé, Olin, Oshkosh, OUTFRONT Media, Pinnacle Foods, Quest Diagnostics, Stanley Black & Decker, Univision, US Foods and Valvoline.

Lawdragon Honors

Honor Year Practice
The 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers in America 2026 M&A, Corporate Governance, Activist Defense
The 2025 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America 2025 Corporate, esp. M&A
The 2025 Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers in America 2025 M&A, Corporate Governance, Activist Defense
The 2024 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America 2024 Corporate, esp. M&A
The 2024 Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers in America 2024 M&A, Corporate Governance, Activist Defense
The 2023 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America 2023 Corporate, esp. M&A
The 2022 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America 2022 Corporate, esp. M&A
The 2022 Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers in America 2022 M&A, Corporate Governance, Activist Defense
The 2021 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America 2021 Corporate, esp. M&A
Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers in America 2021 M&A, Corporate Governance, Activist Defense
The 2020 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America 2020 Corporate, esp. M&A
The 2019 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America 2019 Corporate, esp. M&A
The 2018 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America 2018 Corporate, esp. M&A
The 2017 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America 2017 Corporate, esp. M&A
The 2016 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America 2016 Corporate, esp. M&A
The 2014-15 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers 2014-2015 Corporate, esp. M&A
The 2013 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers 2013 Corporate, esp. M&A
The 2012 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers 2012 Corporate, esp. M&A
Lawdragon 500: The Legends of 2019 2019

Recent transactions include representing:

  • Martin Marietta in its pending exchange of certain assets with Quikrete, its acquisition of aggregates operations from Blue Water Industries, the 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, its acquisition of Lehigh West Region and its acquisition of Bluegrass Materials;

  • Light & Wonder in its acquisition of Grover Charitable Gaming, the sale of SG Lottery to Brookfield and the sale of OpenBet to Endeavor, its acquisition of the remaining stake in SciPlay, the sale of a 34.9% stake to institutional investors including Caledonia, its acquisition of Don Best Sports, its acquisition of NYX Gaming Group and its acquisition of Bally Technologies;

  • Johnson & Johnson in its acquisition of Intra-Cellular Therapies, its acquisition of Ambrx, the separation of Kenvue, its acquisition of Abiomed, its acquisition of Momenta, Janssen Biotech’s acquisition of bermekimab from XBiotech, its acquisition of Auris Health, its acquisition of Ci:z Holdings, the sale of its Advanced Sterilization Products business to Fortive, the sale of its LifeScan business to Platinum Equity, its acquisition of Actelion, the sale of its Codman Neurosurgery business to Integra LifeSciences, its acquisition of Abbott Medical Optics, its acquisition of Novira Therapeutics, the sale of its Cordis business to Cardinal Health, its acquisition of Alios BioPharma, the sale of its Ortho‑Clinical Diagnostics business to The Carlyle Group, its acquisitions of Synthes, Covagen, Crucell, Mentor Corporation, Omrix Biopharmaceuticals and Conor Medsystems, its acquisition of Pfizer’s consumer healthcare businesses, its takeover battle for Guidant and its acquisitions of ALZA and Scios;

  • Kenvue in its cooperation agreement with Starboard;

  • Frontier Communications in its pending acquisition by Verizon; its sale of operations in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington to WaveDivision Capital in partnership with Searchlight; its acquisition of certain businesses from Verizon; and its interactions with JANA Partners;

  • altafiber in the sale of CBTS to TowerBrook, its acquisition by Macquarie Infrastructure, its combination with Hawaiian Telcom, its acquisition of OnX Enterprise Solutions, the sale of its wireless spectrum licenses to Verizon, its acquisition of CyrusOne, the sale of its directory business and its acquisition of IXC;

  • ZimVie in its acquisition by ARCHIMED and the sale of its spine business to H.I.G. Capital;

  • Aon in its acquisition of NFP;

  • Crown Castle in its cooperation agreement with Elliott Management;

  • OUTFRONT Media in the divestiture of its Canadian business to Bell Media and the sale of its Latin America business to JCDecaux Latin America / Corameq;

  • Consolidated Communications’ special committee in the acquisition by Searchlight and BCI;

  • ADT in the sale of its commercial business to GTCR and its equity investment from State Farm;

  • Tabula Rasa in its take-private acquisition by Nautic;

  • Oshkosh in its acquisition of the AeroTech business from JBT;

  • Atlas Air in its acquisition by an investor group led by Apollo;

  • Valvoline in the sale of its Global Products business to Aramco;

  • GreenSky in its acquisition by Goldman Sachs;

  • Stanley Black & Decker in its acquisition of Excel Industries, its acquisition of MTD and its acquisitions of the Craftsman brand from Sears and the Tools business of Newell Brands;

  • Canadian National Railway in its proposed combination with Kansas City Southern;
  • DiaSorin in its acquisition of Luminex;

  • City Brewing in an equity investment, as a result of which a consortium of investors acquired 100% ownership of the company, and its acquisition of the Irwindale brewery operations from Pabst Brewing;

  • Cable One in its acquisition of Hargray Communications;

  • US Foods in its convertible preferred equity investment from KKR, its acquisition of Smart Foodservice and its acquisition of SGA Food Group;

  • Univision in its sale of a majority stake to Searchlight and ForgeLight;
  • J.D. Power in its sale to Thoma Bravo;

  • Pinnacle Foods in its acquisition by Conagra Brands and its acquisition of Boulder Brands;
  • Brunswick in the sale of its Fitness business to KPS Capital Partners, its acquisition of Power Products’ Global Marine & Mobile business and its interactions with Owl Creek Asset Management;
  • Conduent in the sale of its commercial vehicle operations business to Alinda Capital Partners and the sale of its U.S.‑based human resource consulting and actuarial business to H.I.G. Capital;
  • Anheuser‑Busch InBev in its acquisition of SABMiller and an asset swap with Ambev in which AB InBev transferred SABMiller’s Panamanian business to Ambev and Ambev transferred its business in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador to AB InBev;
  • UTi Worldwide in its sale to DSV and its negotiations with its shareholder P2 Capital;
  • AmerisourceBergen in its acquisition of PharMEDium, its acquisition of MWI Veterinary Supply and its strategic relationship with Walgreens and Alliance Boots;
  • MarkWest in its merger with MPLX;
  • Olin in its Reverse Morris Trust acquisition of the chlorine value chain business of Dow Chemical and its cooperation agreement with Sachem Head Capital Management;
  • Lender Processing Services in its acquisition by Fidelity National Financial;
  • Arch Chemicals in its acquisition by Lonza;
  • Millipore in its acquisition by Merck;
  • Stanley Works in its acquisition of Black & Decker;
  • Pepsi Bottling Group in its acquisition by PepsiCo;
  • EMBARQ in its merger with CenturyTel;
  • Nestlé in the sale of its stake in Alcon to Novartis and its acquisition of Ralston Purina;
  • Sprint in its merger with Nextel;
  • Brink’s in its shareholder activism contests with Pirate Capital and MMI and its spin‑off of Brink’s Home Security;
  • PricewaterhouseCoopers in the sale of its consulting business to IBM; and
  • Clorox in its repurchase of shares from Henkel.