Simpson Thacher is among the world’s premier law firms in mergers and acquisitions and LBOs.  Whether a transaction is taxable or tax-free, tax issues play a critical role in a transaction’s structure.

The M&A tax practice covers a diverse group of transactions, from corporate combinations and dispositions to unincorporated joint ventures to cross-border or wholly-foreign transactions.  The Firm’s tax lawyers have been actively involved in structuring some of the largest acquisitions and spin-offs, to facilitate taking companies private, management buy-outs, spin-offs to shareholders and cross-border joint ventures.  Recent significant representations include ITT Corporation in its spin-off of Exelis Inc. and Xylem Inc.; KKR, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures in its strategic investment and partnership with The Go Daddy Group, Inc.; Microsoft Corporation in its $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype Global S.à r.l.; The Mosaic Company in its split-off from Cargill, Incorporated; Arch Coal, Inc. in its $3.4 billion acquisition of International Coal Group; and Petrohawk Energy Corporation in its $15.1 billion acquisition by BHP Billiton.  The Firm’s tax lawyers also work on complicated tax issues associated with acquisitions by the Firm’s LBO clients such as KKR, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Silver Lake, Evercore, Apax Partners, Texas Pacific Group and Vestar, including the recent acquisitions of Del Monte Foods Company, the U.S. shopping mall business of Centro Properties Group and Kinetic Concepts, Inc.