Comcast-NBC Deal to Put a Fleet of M&A Lawyers to Work
Comcast’s proposed purchase of a controlling share of NBC Universal yesterday, and troops are being assembled.
The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) calls the deal, valued at about $30 billion “legal boomlet amid a slow season of M&A activity.”
The deal is “likely to require a small army of lawyers and hordes of document reviewers,” the Am Law Daily said.
Comcast’s firm, Davis Polk & Wardwell, has dispatched 38 lawyers and staffers on the deal; Weil, Gotshal & Manges, advising General Electric and NBC, has deployed about 30 lawyers; and Vivendi, which sold a minority 20 percent stake in NBC to GE for the deal, has 10 lawyers from Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher working on it, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The newspaper noted that the deal moves Davis Polk up to No. 7 and Weil Gotshal up to No. 3 in Dealogic’s rankings by dollar volume of U.S. mergers and acquisitions advised on. However, Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett remain in Dealogics No. 1 and No. 2 spots.
