Mergers & Acquisitions

Given today's economy, the landscape for mergers and acquisitions is in flux, with significant risks for the unwary and great opportunity for the business savvy. As a result, there is a lot riding on the decision to undertake a merger or acquisition and the value of your legal advisors should not be overlooked. But how do you define value? At Devine Millimet, we define it through our extensive transactional experience and our perspective that comes from understanding market trends in the M&A world. Our Mergers and Acquisitions Team is comprised of talented lawyers from multiple disciplines who provide the critical analytical skills necessary to advise our clients and add significant value to their transactions. This multi-disciplinary approach provides our clients with practical and creative solutions through all stages of a transaction, including understanding the legal as well as the business and tax issues of our clients and knowing when to advise a client to close a deal or walk away.

Whether you are buying or selling on Main Street, Wall Street or any place in between, our attorneys in the Devine Millimet Mergers and Acquisitions Team have the expertise and experience to assist you in achieving your desired goals and objectives.

Our Experience

Our M&A attorneys have a wealth of experience in all aspects of mergers and acquisitions. Our philosophy is to always strive to meet each client’s needs and exceed expectations during every stage of the transaction, beginning with pre-deal issue identification and evaluation through to closing. We represent clients of all sizes across a wide variety of industries in the broad spectrum of M&A transactions, including:

Purchase and sale of public and private businesses and divisions
Mergers and consolidations
Divestitures
Buyouts, liquidations, and reorganization transactions
ESOP structuring and acquisitions
Leveraged acquisitions and related acquisition financings
Strategic affiliations, collaborations and joint ventures

Related Practice Groups

Attorneys in our Mergers and Acquisitions Team work collaboratively with attorneys in other practice groups at Devine Millimet to find practical, creative solutions to challenges related to your goals and overall deal strategy.

Federal and State Tax Planning: Our Federal and State Tax Practice Group assists in analyzing the federal and state tax effects resulting from a proposed transaction.

Estate Tax Planning: Our Trusts & Estates Practice Group regularly assists clients with the unique tax aspects of federal and state estate and gift tax planning and compliance.

Employment Matters: Our Labor, Employment and Employee Benefits Practice Group advises clients on the entire spectrum of employment-related issues, including employee benefits and ERISA matters.

Tax Exempt Entities: Our Non-profit Organizations Practice Group assists with merging non-profit entities as well as issues related to acquiring, maintaining and defending tax exempt status of non-profit, tax exempt organizations.

Intellectual Property Matters: Our Patent, Trademark and Licensing Practice Group assists with intellectual property issues, including intellectual property due diligence and audits and transfers of intellectual property rights.

Real Estate and Environmental Matters: Our Real Estate Practice Group and Environmental Practice Group assist with issues such as environmental due diligence and federal, state and local regulatory and zoning compliance.

Representative Transactions

Some of the transactions with which we have recently been involved, include:

National and International

The sale of a major defense contractor to a publicly-traded leading provider of high technology products and systems.
The sale of a division of an ESOP-owned international textile manufacturing and processing company.
An acquisition of a division of a publicly-traded company by a regional high technology company for $30 million.
The joint venture between a regional e-waste recovery and recycling business and an India-based company.
The sale of a majority ownership interest in an equipment leasing and financing company based on an enterprise value of $115 million to a publicly-traded private equity firm.
The acquisition by a national telecommunications company of all land lines and other related assets of a large multi-national telecommunications company.
The acquisition of a California-based financial lender by a publicly-traded financial institution in Mexico.

Regional

The sale of a New Hampshire-based auto parts distributor with twelve locations to a regional auto parts distributor.
The sale of a regional oil distribution company and its over thirty retail locations to a New England-based petroleum marketing distribution company.
The sale of a manufacturer of ceramic circuits and resistive chip devices with a transaction value of approximately $15 million.
The sale of the largest regional distributor of beauty supply products to a publicly traded professional beauty product manufacturer and distributor.
The sale of a regional staffing company and its subsidiaries for $27 million.
Numerous affiliations of regional health care providers with for-profit and non-profit integrated health care delivery systems.

Local

The acquisition of a retail bicycle shop that had been owned and operated by a local family for over 100 years.
The acquisition of a New Hampshire-based candle manufacturer by a private equity firm.
The merger of four tax-exempt community based non-profit organizations.
The acquisition of a New Hampshire subsidiary of a telecommunications company for $25 million.
An ESOP purchase of a 100% ownership interest in a New Hampshire-based construction company.
The sale of a New Hampshire-based liberal arts college to a publicly traded for-profit company.
The spin-off of a tax-exempt public broadcasting station.
The affiliation of a private accredited law school with a state university system.
The sale of an iconic family-owned local grocery store.

In addition to these representative transactions, the attorneys in the Mergers and Acquisitions Team have assisted business owners and entrepreneurs purchase and sell numerous dental, medical, veterinary and other professional practices, software companies, restaurants, grocery and convenience stores and many other varying types of businesses that are an active part of the regional and local economy.