JONATHAN BLACKBURN is a partner in the firm’s Chicago office and is a member of the Corporate group. His principal areas of practice include the representation of buyers, sellers and financial advisers in public and private mergers and acquisitions across a wide range of industries, private equity transactions and a variety of capital markets transactions, including derivative transactions and securities offerings. Jonathan also regularly advises publicly traded and private companies regarding corporate governance matters, disclosure policy and issues arising under the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, and state corporate law. During law school, he served as executive editor of Law & Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice.
Recent transactions on which Jonathan has advised include:
- Sale by GE of GE Appliances business to Haier, a transaction valued at $5.4 billion;
- Sale by GE Capital of its Sponsor Finance lending platform to CPPIB, a transaction valued at $12 billion;
- Sale of Meadowbrook Insurance Group (NYSE: MIG) to Fosun Group for $433 million;
- Sale by Glencore Viterra of Dakota Growers Pasta Company to Post Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: POST) in a transaction valued at $370 million;
- Deutsche Bank in connection with the $1 billion plus reorganization of Station Casinos;
- Acquisition by GE of Dresser, Inc. from private equity sponsors led by Riverstone Partners, a transaction valued at $3.1 billion;
- Discover Financial Services in its $600 million acquisition of The Student Loan Corporation;
- Public company mergers, including the following that were each valued at more than $1 billion:
- Care Capital Properties/Sabra Health Care REIT (pending)
- CBOE Holdings/Bats Global Markets
- Keurig Green Mountain/JAB
- Strategic Hotels/Blackstone
- Duke Energy/Piedmont Natural Gas
- Catamaran/UnitedHealth
- Beam/Suntory
- Ingredion Incorporated in connection with its $340 million acquisition of publicly traded Penford Corporation;
- Corn Products International, Inc. (n/k/a Ingredion Incorporated) in its $1.3 billion acquisition of Akzo Nobel N.V.’s specialty starch business; and
- Catamaran Corporation in its $4 billion acquisition of publicly traded Catalyst Health Solutions, Inc. and the related debt and equity financings.