William J. Rowe

Partner

Baker & McKenzie LLP

Chicago

T + 1 312 861 2650

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Biography

William J. Rowe is a mergers and acquisitions partner in Chicago. He assists global clients, many Fortune 100 repeat acquirers, with transformational domestic and international mergers and acquisitions. Representative clients include FedEx, McDonald's, Stryker, Daimler, Kao Corporation and Crane Co. as well as companies seeking to be acquired. He has spoken at conferences held by or been published by Bloomberg, Practicing Law Institute, the Chicago Bar Association and Deal Lawyers, among others, on practical developments for international acquisitions and is an Illinois Super Lawyers Rising Star in mergers and acquisitions.

Practice Focus

William has extensive experience as lead M&A counsel assisting clients with complex and development strategy driven mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, including transactions involving venture capital or private equity backed businesses and start-ups, intellectual property driven technology transactions, carve out transactions and in-bound or outbound geographic expansions through acquisitions. His practice emphasizes cross border acquisitions and includes public mergers and acquisition transactions.

Representative Legal Matters

Advised McDonald's in its acquisition of Dynamic Yield, a website personalization and decision logic technology company based in Israel and its acquisition of Apprente, an artificial intelligence voice technology company based in silicon valley.
Advised FedEx in its 2020 e-commerce acquisition of ShopRunner, its USD 1.4 billion acquisition of Genco Distribution System, its USD 4.8 billion acquisition of TNT Express and other matters.
Daimler in multiple minority investments in silicon valley based autonomous driving, technology and e-transportation companies.
Advised Crane Co., a US public company, on its USD 800 million acquisition of Crane & Co., Inc., a private company supplier of secure banknotes.
Advised Safran in its USD 710 million sale of its Morpho Detection airport security business.
Advised Ecolab in its USD 8.1 billion merger with Nalco.
Advised Medtronic in connection with its USD 816 million acquisition of China Kanghui.
Advised the independent committee of the board of directors of Telvent with respect to Schneider Electric USD 2 billion tender offer for all outstanding shares of Telvent.
Advised Kao, a Japanese public company, in its acquisition of United States based Washing Systems, LLC from Gryphon Investors.
Advised Walgreens in its Specialty Pharmacy and Mail Service Pharmacy Joint Venture with Prime Therapeutics, in a transaction valued at USD 2 billion.
Advised Material Handling Systems in its sale to Thomas H. Lee and The Kenrich Group in its sale to HKA, each private employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) sale transactions.

Professional Honors

Illinois Rising Stars, Super Lawyers Individual Awards, 2012-2021

Admissions

Illinois~United States (2007)

Education

Georgetown University Law Center (J.D., Honors) (2007)
Northwestern University (B.A. Legal Studies, Honors) (2004)

Co-author, "Transactional Tax Liability Policies - At the Top of the Adoption Curve," Bloomberg Tax Management Memorandum, June 2020

Co-author, "Material Adverse Effect in the Uncertain World of COVID-19," Deal Lawyers, May-June 2020

Speaker, "So You Want to Buy a Tech Company," Connect on Tech Podcast, March 2020

Speaker, "Cross Border Rep and Warranty Insurance Coverage In Depth," AON Transaction Solutions Symposium, February 2020

Speaker/Faculty, "Closing Business Transactions - Practical Legal Considerations," Practicing Law Institute, November 2017, 2018 and 2019

Baker & McKenzie LLP is a Limited Liability Partnership organized under the laws of the State of Illinois (USA) and is a member of Baker & McKenzie International, a Verein organized under the laws of Switzerland.