Damien Zoubek

About Damien Zoubek

Damien focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, shareholder activism defense, distressed M&A and bankruptcy auctions, corporate governance and general corporate matters spanning numerous industries.

Damien is repeatedly recognized as a leading lawyer for Corporate/M&A by, among others, Chambers USA, Chambers Global, Legal 500 US, IFLR1000, Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Lawyers in America” and “500 Leading Dealmakers in America,” and Who’s Who Legal: M&A and Governance. Mr. Zoubek’s work was featured by the Financial Times in its annual FT North America Innovative Lawyers report in 2016 and 2017.

Damien was born in Summit, New Jersey. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he also serves on the Board of Visitors.

Recent work

Consumer

• The Fresh Market on its $1.36 billion sale to affiliates of Apollo.
• Pilgrim’s Pride on its $7.7 billion offer for Hillshire Brands and in connection with a competing offer to acquire Hillshire made by Tyson Foods.
• Vista Outdoor on its $412.5 million acquisition of CamelBak Products

Financial Institutions

• Afterpay on its $29 billion sale to Square.
• Fortress Investment Group on Nationstar Mortgage’s merger with WMIH, and separately on the sale of its remaining 40.5% equity interest in OneMain Holdings to an investor group led by Apollo Global and Värde Partners.
• GreenSky on its $2.2 billion sale to Goldman Sachs.
• Lender Processing Services on its $4.3 billion sale to Fidelity National Financial.
• World Fuel Services on its $350 million sale of the Multi Service payment solutions business to Corsair Capital.

Healthcare

• Cencora (f/k/a AmerisourceBergen) on numerous matters, including its $4bn+ acquisition of Retina Consultants of America, $1.3 billion acquisition of PharmaLex, $6.5 billion acquisition of Walgreens’ Alliance Healthcare businesses, $815 million acquisition of H. D. Smith, $2.575 billion acquisition of PharMEDium, $2.5 billion acquisition of MWI Veterinary Supply and strategic relationship with Walgreens and Alliance Boots.
• Berkeley Lights on its acquisition of IsoPlexis.
• Covance on its $6.2 billion sale to LabCorp.
• DiaSorin on its $1.8 billion acquisition of Luminex and its sale of its Flow Cytometry & Imaging business to Cytek Biosciences, Inc.
• GW Pharmaceuticals on its $7.2 billion sale to Jazz Pharmaceuticals.
• Johnson & Johnson on over 30 acquisitions and divestitures, including its $13.1 billion acquisition of Shockwave Medical, Inc., $6.5 billion acquisition of Momenta,  ¥230 billion acquisition of Ci:z Holdings, $2.8 billion sale of its Advanced Sterilization Products business to Fortive, $2.1 billion sale of its LifeScan business to Platinum Equity, $30 billion acquisition of Actelion and $19.7 billion acquisition of Synthes.
• PhenomeX on its sale to Bruker Corporation.
• Roivant Sciences on its $7.1 billion sale of Telavant to Roche, its pending $1.2 billion sale of Dermavant to Organon and its strategic alliance with Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma.
• Sobi on its $915 million acquisition of Dova Pharmaceuticals.
• Zeus Company on its sale to EQT Partners.

Industrials

• Alliant Techsystems on its spin‐off of the Sporting Group to its shareholders and merger of its Aerospace and Defense Groups with Orbital Sciences Corporation.
• Arch Chemicals on its $1.4 billion sale to Lonza Group.
• Brink’s on its shareholder activism contest with MMI.
• Exyte on its acquisition of Critical Process Systems from Wynnchurch Capital.
• Sonoco on numerous transactions including its $1.8bn sale of its Thermoformed and Flexibles Packaging business (TFP) to TOPPAN, its $3.9bn acquisition of Eviosys, its $1.35 billion acquisition of Ball Metalpack and its acquisition of the remaining equity interest in its joint venture with the WestRock Company and RTS Packaging for $330 million.

Lodging and Hospitality

• Credit Suisse, as agent on behalf of a group of secured lenders, on credit bid for the acquisition of the Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey, through a bankruptcy auction.
• New Senior on its $2.3 billion sale to Ventas.
• Starwood Hotels on its $13.3 billion sale to Marriott and in connection with a competing, unsolicited acquisition proposal from a consortium consisting of Anbang Insurance, J.C. Flowers and Primavera Capital.

Media and Entertainment

• DreamWorks SKG on its $1.6 billion sale to Paramount Pictures.
• Patrick Whitesell, the Executive Chairman of Endeavor, in connection with the $13 billion sale of Endeavor to Silver Lake. 
• New Media on its $1.4 billion acquisition of Gannett.
• Univision on its sale of a majority stake to Searchlight Capital and ForgeLight.
• Viacom’s transaction committee on its $30 billion merger with CBS.

Technology and Telecommunications

• Bharti on its acquisition of, and $1 billion investment in, OneWeb by a consortium led by Bharti and Her Majesty’s Government.
• Cincinnati Bell on its $2.9 billion acquisition by Macquarie Infrastructure.
• Coupa on its $8 billion sale to Thoma Bravo.
• Exyte on its acquisition of Airgard, Inc.
• J.D. Power on its sale to Thoma Bravo.
• Qualcomm on its cooperation agreement with JANA Partners.
• The Special Committee of PowerSchool Holdings, Inc. on its pending sale to Bain Capital in a transaction valuing the company at $5.6 billion. 
• The independent directors of JDA Software Group on the $1.9 billion leveraged buyout of JDA by affiliates of New Mountain Capital.
• Technicolor on its $475 million sale of its patent licensing business to InterDigital.

Transportation

• Atlas Air Worldwide on its long‐term commercial agreements to provide air cargo services to Amazon, and its grant of rights to Amazon to acquire Atlas Air equity.
• Brightline on its acquisition of XpressWest.
• Burlington Northern Santa Fe on its $44 billion sale to Berkshire Hathaway.
• Canadian National Railway on its $33.6 billion combination with Kansas City Southern, topping KCS’s original agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway.
• Florida East Coast Railway on its sale to Grupo México by Fortress Investment Group.