Christopher E. Austin’s practice focuses on public and private merger and acquisition transactions. 

He also provides advice regarding governance matters and fiduciary duties of officers and directors to corporations and their boards.

Chris joined the firm in 1983 and became a partner in 1992. From 1993 to 1998, he was resident in the Hong Kong office.
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Notable Experience

Recent Clients

  • 3M; General Mills; Sony; General Motors; International Flavors & Fragrances; Goldman Sachs; Lenovo; Warburg Pincus; Westlake Chemical; National Amusements; One West Bank; Walgreens Boots Alliance; Whirlpool.

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Recent Transactions

  • Walgreens Boots Alliance in its $6.5 billion strategic transaction with AmerisourceBergen Corporation.

  • International Flavors & Fragrances in its $45.4 billion merger with DuPont’s Nutrition & Biosciences business and $7 billion acquisition of Frutarom.

  • National Amusements (the Redstone family holding company) with respect to its investments in CBS and Viacom, including the $30.5 billion merger of CBS and Viacom.

  • 3M in numerous transactions, including its acquisitions of Acelity, M*Modal, Scott Safety, Capital Safety, Ceradyne, Cogent, and CUNO.

  • General Mills in its $8 billion acquisition of Blue Buffalo Pet Products.

  • General Motors in the sale of its Opel/Vauxhall business to Peugeot.

  • ESL Investments with respect to its investment in Sears, including its $5.2 billion acquisition of Sears.

  • Westlake Chemical in its unsolicited offer to acquire, and subsequent $3.8 billion acquisition of, Axiall.

  • Triton Container in its merger of equals with TAL.

  • Asahi Kasei in its acquisitions of Polypore and Zoll Medical.

  • Banner Bank in its acquisition of the holding company for AmericanWest Bank.

  • OneWest Bank in its $3.4 billion sale to CIT Group.

  • The Raine Group in its investment in and sale of C3 Presents and its investment in Vice Holding.

  • Natixis in its acquisition of a majority stake in Peter J. Solomon Company.

  • Silver Point Capital in its sale of Affinity Gaming.

  • Warburg Pincus in its €975 million acquisition of a stake in the securities custody business of Santander Banco de Emisiones S.A.

  • Lenovo in its acquisition of the x86 server hardware and related maintenance services business of IBM Corporation.

  • Sony Corporation in its acquisition of full control of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and its acquisition of Gaikai.

  • Booz & Company in its sale to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

  • Brightstar and its founder in SoftBank’s acquisition of a 57% interest in Brightstar.

  • Whirlpool Corporation in its acquisition of a 51% stake in Hefei Rongshida Sanyo Electric.

  • Sixth Street Partners in a novel transaction with Octavian Advisors and its affiliates.

  • Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic in their acquisition of a 50% interest in Santander Asset Management.

  • Nationstar Mortgage in its acquisition of Greenlight Financial Services’ mortgage origination business.

  • Goldman Sachs in the acquisition of Dwight Asset Management and the sale of Litton Loan Servicing.

  • The Coca-Cola Company in its acquisition of Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling Company.

  • JPMorgan Chase in its acquisition of RBS Sempra Commodities’ global oil, metals, agricultural, plastics, and European energy commodities operations.

  • Hewlett-Packard in its acquisitions of 3Par, 3Com, EDS, Opsware, Neoware, Knightsbridge, and Peregrine Systems.

  • US Bancorp in the contribution of the long-only asset management business of FAF Advisors to Nuveen Investment.

  • VeriSign in the sale of its authentication business to Symantec.

  • ING in the sale of its U.S. broker-dealer business to Lightyear Capital.

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Publications

Events