Alan Klein is a Partner with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, where he practices in the Corporate Department. He serves as the Firm’s Co-Administrative Partner and is a member of the Firm's Executive Committee. Alan’s practice concentrates on mergers and acquisitions, shareholder activism and corporate governance matters.
Alan has represented Microsoft Corporation in connection with its $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia’s phone business, its acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion in cash from the investor group led by Silver Lake and in its investment in Barnes & Noble’s Nook business, as well as in its approach to Yahoo! Inc.
In addition, he recently represented Tyco International Ltd. in connection with a number of transactions including its separation into three independent, publicly traded companies and the multibillion-dollar merger of its Flow Control business with Pentair, Inc.; its acquisition of Chemguard, Inc.; its $300 million acquisition of a 75% equity stake in privately held KEF Holdings Ltd.; its $2 billion cash and stock acquisition of Brink’s Home Security Holdings, Inc., now operating as Broadview Security and its sale of a majority interest in its Electrical & Metal Products business. He also recently represented Best Buy in a take-private offer by its founder and former chairman.
Alan has also been involved in many cross-border M&A transactions around the world during the last decade, including representing Chinalco in its $12 billon investment in Rio Tinto plc; Gas Natural S.A. in its $30 billion bid for Endesa S.A.; Rinker Group Limited in connection with its $15 billion acquisition by Cemex S.A.B. de C.V.; Portugal Telecom S.A. in connection with the unsolicited offer made for it by Sonae S.A.; Gerdau S.A. in its acquisition of Quanex Corporation; Gerdau Ameristeel Corporation in its acquisition of Chaparral Steel Company; Bavaria S.A., Latin America’s second-largest brewer, in its sale to SABMiller plc; Owens-Illinois Inc. in its acquisition of French packaging company BSN Glasspack from CVC Europe and in its disposition of Owens-Brockway Plastic Products Inc.; Merck & Co, Inc. in its tender offer for shares of Banyu, a Japanese pharmaceutical company; Telefonica Moviles S.A. in its acquisition of certain non-U.S. cellular phone companies from Motorola Inc. and Pechiney in its proposed three-way merger with Alcan Aluminum and Alusuisse.
Alan is the past Co-Chair of the International Bar Association’s Corporate and M&A Law Committee. For the past five years, he has chaired the International Bar Association’s Annual International Mergers and Acquisitions Conference in New York City.
Alan recently authored a chapter entitled “Avoiding the Pitfalls and Reaping the Benefits of Cross-Border M&A Deals” in Structuring International M&A Deals: Leading Lawyers on Managing Mergers & Acquisitions in a Global Environment, published by Aspatore Books, a Thomson-Reuters business.
From 1994 to 1998, Alan was resident in the Firm’s London office, and worked on international transactions, including the merger of Glaxo plc and Wellcome plc; the acquisition of Affymax N.V. by Glaxo; the acquisition by Owens-Illinois, Inc. of the glass and packaging business of BTR plc; the acquisition of Yorkshire Electricity plc by American Electric Power and its partner New Century Energy, as well as initial public offerings by British, French, Italian, Norwegian and Swedish companies.
Alan joined the Firm in 1984 and became a Partner in 1993. He received his B.A. with Honors in history in 1981 from Haverford College. He received his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1984. Alan was named a 2012 MVP by Law360 for his leadership in M&A, including closing within one year several of the market’s most significant M&A deals with a combined transaction value of more than $18 billion. In addition, Alan was selected as a 2012 “Dealmaker of the Year” by The American Lawyer. He was chosen for leading the Simpson Thacher team representing Microsoft in connection with its $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype. He is recognized in Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, The International Who’s Who of Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyers, and The International Who’s Who of Corporate Governance Lawyers, as well as by IFLR1000 as a leading mergers and acquisitions lawyer.
