Jim Langston is Global Co-Head of M&A at Paul, Weiss. 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.
Langston 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
Langston’s representations have included:
Select Public Company Transactions
- Acadia Healthcare Company in its $1.2 billion acquisition of CRC Health Group
- Alkermes in its $2.37 billion acquisition of Avadel Pharmaceuticals
- ArcelorMittal in its $3.3 billion sale of ArcelorMittal USA to Cleveland-Cliffs
- Ecolab in the $950 million sale of its surgical solutions business to Medline
- General Mills in its $8 billion acquisition of Blue Buffalo Pet Products, its $610 million sale of its Helper and Suddenly Salad businesses to Eagle Family Foods and its sale of Yoplait’s European operations to Sodiaal
- Keurig Dr Pepper in its $18.4 billion acquisition of JDE Peet’s, in its planned separation into two independent, U.S.-listed publicly traded companies and in two strategic investments in KDP totaling $7 billion from Apollo and KKR; and in a series of transactions with Chobani totaling $925 million
- 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
- Sony in its $1 billion, $250 million and $200 million minority investments in Epic Games
- Sony Interactive Entertainment in its acquisition of Bungie
- T-Mobile in its $4.4 billion acquisition of UScellular’s wireless operations and its up to $1.35 billion acquisition of Ka’ena and its subsidiaries and brands, Mint Mobile, Ultra Mobile and Plum
Hostile M&A Transactions, Shareholder Activism & Conflict-of-Interest Transactions
- Actavis in its $70 billion “white knight” acquisition of Allergan
- GlaxoSmithKline in its unsolicited tender offer to acquire Human Genome Sciences and the resulting $3.6 billion negotiated acquisition
- 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
Select Private Equity M&A Transactions
- Neiman Marcus, TPG Capital and Warburg Pincus in the $6 billion sale of Neiman Marcus to Ares Management and CPPIB
- TPG Capital in numerous transactions, including its $2.25 billion acquisition of RCN Telecommunications and Grande Communications; its $1.7 billion acquisition of Savers; its $525 million take-private acquisition of PRIMEDIA; its investment in Creative Artists Agency; and its recapitalization of RentPath, including the sale of a significant equity stake to Providence Equity Partners
Other Select Corporate Transactions
- 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
- Duravant in its acquisition of WECO
- Pregis in its acquisition of SOPRAD
- The Superior Group in its $1.65 billion cash-and-stock sale to MasTec
- ZT Systems in its $4.9 billion stock and cash sale to Advanced Micro Devices
