Ropes & Gray Advises McAfee in Sale to Investor Group for over $14 Billion

A cross-practice Ropes & Gray team advised McAfee Corp., a global leader in online protection, in its agreement to be acquired by an investor group led by Advent International Corporation and Permira Advisers LLC, Crosspoint Capital Partners, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, GIC Private Limited, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The transaction was announced on Nov. 8 in a press release.

As part of the transaction, the Investor Group will acquire all outstanding shares of McAfee common stock for $26.00 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $12 billion on an equity value basis, and over $14 billion on an enterprise value basis after giving effect to repayment of McAfee debt. The purchase price represents a premium of approximately 22.6% over McAfee’s closing share price of $21.21 on November 4, 2021, the last trading day prior to media reports regarding a potential sale of McAfee.

The Ropes & Gray team representing McAfee was led by private equity and M&A partners Michael Roh (Boston), Howard Glazer (San Francisco) and Kate Withers (New York), and included commercial & securities litigation partner Daniel McCaughey (Boston), tax partner Adam Greenwood (New York), litigation & enforcement partners Ama Adams and Maria Calvet (both of Washington, D.C.), Randall Bodner (Boston) and Ruchit Patel (London), antitrust partner Jonathan Klarfeld (Washington, D.C.), leveraged finance partners Arek Maczka and Jay Kim (both of New York), employment, executive compensation & benefits partners Megan Bisk and Kyle Higley (both of Boston), IP transactions partner Megan Baca (Silicon Valley), mergers & acquisitions counsel Thomas Burke (New York), litigation & enforcement counsel Gregory Demers and Deidre Johnson (both of Boston), data, privacy & cybersecurity partner Edward McNicholas (Washington, D.C.), and mergers & acquisitions partner Thomas Holden (San Francisco).