Baker McKenzie advised Rakuten on a long-term partnership with 1&1 to build its own mobile network. Together with 1&1, Rakuten will build Europe's first fully virtualized mobile network based on the innovative OpenRAN technology. This will make 1&1 the fourth mobile network provider in Germany with its own infrastructure, alongside Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica.
Rakuten is a pioneer in OpenRAN technology. After several years of preparation and development work, Rakuten launched full-scale commercial service with the world's first fully virtualized cloud-native OpenRAN mobile network in April 2020 as a new entrant in Japan.
An international team of Baker McKenzie lawyers advised Rakuten on all legal and regulatory aspects of the complex transaction.
"With a well-coordinated team, we were able to contribute to the successful completion of the transaction on the legal and regulatory side. As general contractor, our client will now build a next-generation mobile network for 1&1 AG that will set new standards in Germany and Europe," comments Dr. Holger Lutz, lead partner of the transaction.
Rakuten Group, Inc. (TSE: 4755) is a leading global technology group. Founded in 1997 in Tokyo as an online marketplace, Rakuten today provides e-commerce, fintech, digital content and messaging services to more than 1.5 billion customers worldwide. Rakuten group employs over 25,000 people and operates in 30 countries and regions. For more information, visit https://global.rakuten.com/corp/.
1&1 AG is a listed telecommunications provider based in Maintal, Germany. The company is part of United Internet AG group. 1&1 offers its customers a comprehensive portfolio of wireless services and broadband access.
Baker McKenzie's global IT/Corporate/M&A team advises on a wide range of domestic and cross-border transactions in the IT sector. Most recently, Baker McKenzie advised, among others, METRO AG on a strategic IT partnership with Wipro Limited, Atos on the acquisition of German cryptography specialist cryptovision, Deutsche Beteiligungs AG on the sale of its stake in DNS:Net, Paragon on the sale of NovumIP to Questel Group, Cognizant on the acquisition of ESG Mobility, SK Telecom on a joint venture with Deutsche Telekom and SAP on the sale of SAP Digital Interconnect to Sinch.
Legal advisor to Rakuten:
Baker McKenzie
Lead:
IT: Dr. Holger Lutz (partner, Frankfurt); Corporate/M&A: Dr. Peter Wand (partner, Frankfurt)
Team:
Corporate/M&A: Prof. Dr. Artur M. Swierczok (counsel, Frankfurt), Rouven Reuter, Yixin Yang, Nikolas Lazaridis (all associate, Frankfurt)
IT: Florian Tannen (partner, Munich), Simone Rieken (senior associate, Frankfurt), Susanna Milne (associate, Berlin)
Public Law: Prof. Dr. Joachim Scherer (partner, Frankfurt), Anahita Thoms (partner, Berlin), Dr. Claire Dietz-Polte (partner, Berlin), Vivien Vacha (senior associate, Berlin)
Commercial & Trade: Dr. Johannes Teichmann (partner, Frankfurt), Dr. Ingmar Oltmanns (senior associate, Frankfurt), Rebecca Romig (associate, Frankfurt)
Banking & Finance: Dr. Oliver Socher (partner, Frankfurt), Silke Fritz (counsel, Frankfurt), Emmanuel Hadjidakis (principal, Singapore), Philipp Thimm (associate, Frankfurt), Wataru Inagaki, Fei Zhou (both associate, Tokyo)
Tax: Dr. Stephan Schnorberger (partner, Dusseldorf), Jochen Meyer-Burow (partner, Frankfurt), Sonja Klein (senior counsel, Frankfurt), Benjamin Bergau (associate, Frankfurt)
Employment: Amelie Czekalla (associate, Frankfurt)
IP: Andreas Jagusch (associate, Frankfurt)