John C. Godfrey

JOHN GODFREY represents private equity firms, portfolio companies, and other private and public companies on mergers, acquisitions, sales, joint ventures and other complex transactions, as well as general corporate governance matters.

Prior to joining Sidley, John was a member of the Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity practices of another global law firm.

John has been recognized as a “Rising Star” for Mergers & Acquisitions by Super Lawyers (2016–2023).

• ADT Inc. in its US$450 million investment from Google in connection with the companies’ establishment of a long-term commercial partnership.
• Air Methods Corporation in its US$2.5 billion sale to affiliates of American Securities LLC.
• American Industrial Partners (AIP) in its US$700 million acquisition of the Grain & Protein division of AGCO Corporation (NYSE: AGCO).
• Apollo Global Management and its portfolio companies in various matters, including:
  • The acquisition of the Environmental Services business of GFL Environmental Inc. valued at CA$8 billion.
  • Its US$8.1 billion take-private acquisition of Univar Solutions.
  • Intrado Corporation, a portfolio company of Apollo, in the US$2.4 billion sale of Intrado’s safety business to Stonepeak.
  • A US$1.2 billion equity investment by State Farm in ADT, a portfolio company of Apollo.
  • Its US$338 million take-private acquisition of The New Home Company.
  • Shutterfly, a portfolio company of Apollo, in its US$225 million acquisition of Spoonflower.
  • Its US$2.2 billion take-private acquisition of Diamond Resorts International.
• ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in its US$5.2 billion sale to Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited.
• Arsenal Capital Management in its acquisition of Rancho BioSciences, LLC, a data science company with a focus on the life sciences and pharmaceutical sectors.
• Chesapeake Lodging Trust in its US$2.7 billion sale to Park Hotels & Resorts Inc.
• Crescent Communities in its sale to Sumitomo Forestry America, Inc.
• Encana Corporation (now known as Ovintiv) in its US$7.7 billion acquisition of Newfield Exploration Company.
• Hemisphere Media Group in its take-private sale to a subsidiary of Gato Investments, a portfolio investment of Searchlight CapitalPartners, including the company’s sale of Pantaya to TelevisaUnivision.
• Mortgage Assets Management, LLC and its affiliate in connection with the acquisition of Ditech’s reverse mortgage business, ReverseMortgage Solutions, Inc.
• Mosaic Acquisition Corp. (SPAC) in its combination with Vivint Smart Home, Inc. to form a publicly listed company with an enterprise value of approximately US$4.2 billion.
• North Mountain Merger Corp. (SPAC) in its proposed combination with Corcentric to form a publicly traded company with a pro-forma enterprise value of US$1.2 billion.
• Oakwood Homes in its sale to Clayton Properties Group, a division of Clayton Homes.
• One Equity Partners in connection with its investment in Brown & Root Industrial Services (“Brown & Root”), and in Brown & Root’s acquisition of Specialty Welding and Turnarounds.
• Ply Gem Holdings in its US$2.4 billion sale to affiliates of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.
• Qualcomm Incorporated in its successful defense against a US$142 billion hostile takeover offer from Broadcom.
• QualTek Services in a series of divestitures, including in the sale of its Wireline fiber and Fulfillment business units to FiOptix.
• Reservoir Holdings, Inc. in its US$788 million combination with Roth CH Acquisition II Co. (SPAC).
• Searchlight Capital Partners in its US$1 billion acquisition, in partnership with fintech company Rêv Worldwide, Inc., of Netspend’sconsumer business from Global Payments.
• South Mountain Merger Corp. (SPAC) in its US$1.3 billion combination with Billtrust.
• Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. in its US$1.25 billion sale of its Global Auto Care business to Energizer Holdings, Inc.
• Trine Acquisition Corp. (SPAC) in its combination with Desktop Metal to form a publicly listed company with an estimated post-transaction equity value of up to US$2.5 billion.
• Verizon Communications, Inc. in its US$4.4 billion acquisition of AOL Inc.
• Virtu Financial in its US$1.4 billion acquisition of KCG Holdings and its US$400 million sale of its fixed income trading venue BondPoint to Intercontinental Exchange.

Some of the above matters were handled prior to joining Sidley.