Oliver J. Board

About Oliver J. Board

Oliver focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, securities law and corporate governance matters. He regularly advises management and boards of directors in connection with public and private acquisitions and divestitures, domestic and international transactions, spin-offs, joint ventures and private equity transactions. He also advises on takeover defenses and proxy contests.

Prior to becoming a lawyer, Oliver held several academic positions at the University of Pittsburgh, Amherst College and the University of Oxford.

Recent work

Public M&A

• AstraZeneca on its pending $1.1 billion acquisition of Icosavax.
• Coupa on its $8 billion sale to Thoma Bravo.
• PhenomeX on its $108 million sale to Bruker Corporation. 
• Berkeley Lights on its acquisition of IsoPlexis.
• Zymergen on its $300 million sale to Ginkgo Bioworks—the first-ever sale of a publicly-listed public benefit corporation.
• Alexion Pharmaceuticals on its $39 billion sale to AstraZeneca.
• Celgene on its $89 billion sale to Bristol-Myers Squibb.
• Convergys on its $2.8 billion sale to SYNNEX.
• Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Independence Holding Company on its $315 million sale to Geneve Holdings.
• Goldman Sachs Asset Management on the $900 million sale of Goldman Sachs Middle Market Lending to Goldman Sachs BDC.
• Kansas City Southern on its $29 billion sale to Canadian Pacific.
• Translate Bio on its $3.2 billion sale to Sanofi.
• Whole Foods Market on its $13.7 billion sale to Amazon.com.
• XO Group on its $933 million merger with WeddingWire.

Strategic and Private M&A

• Ara Partners on its acquisition of a majority stake in USD Clean Fuels and USD Clean Fuels.
• Pearson plc on the sale of its international Online Program Management business, Pearson Online Learning Services, to an affiliate of Regent LP.
• Ericsson on the sale of its IoT Accelerator and Connected Vehicle Cloud businesses and related assets to Aeris Communications, Inc.
• BayBoston Managers, together with a consortium of investors, on its acquisition of Caribbean Financial Group.
• Cengage Learning on its merger of equals with McGraw-Hill Education.
• Edgewell Personal Care on the $122.5 million sale of its infant and pet care business to Le Holding Angelcare.
• eNett on its sale to WEX by parent company Travelport, a portfolio company of Siris Capital and Elliott Management.
• FMC on its acquisition of DuPont’s Crop Protection business in exchange for FMC’s Health and Nutrition business and $1.2 billion in cash.
• Kellogg on the $1.3 billion sale of its cookies, fruit and fruit flavored snacks, pie crusts and ice cream cones businesses to Ferrero International.
• SEAKR Engineering on its sale to Raytheon Technologies.
• WH Smith plc on its $198 million acquisition of InMotion Entertainment.

Other Transactions and Corporate Matters

• Altisource Asset Management on its entry into a new asset management agreement with Front Yard Residential.
• Casdin Capital on its $125 million investment in convertible preferred shares of Fluidigm.
• Ad Hoc Group of First and Second Lien Noteholders on the reorganization of Pyxus International and $1.5 billion of debt in a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• Siris Capital Group on its provision with Elliot Management of $500 million of financing and financing commitments to Travelport.
• TEGNA on its successful defense against a proxy fight by Standard General in the first ever contested virtual meeting.
• XPO Logistics on its $850 million senior notes offering and $300 million tack-on senior notes offering.