Clients turn to Pierce Atwood for critical mergers and acquisitions transactions, long the core of our Business Group's practice. Whether selling a cherished business built over generations or a fast-growing company built on the latest innovation, spinning off a non-core subsidiary or buying a key new strategic business, our clients look to Pierce Atwood's business attorneys to navigate the process. We seek a lead role in these transactions, negotiating and structuring the deal terms, managing the due diligence process, documenting all aspects of the transaction and taking it to closing. We coordinate multidisciplinary teams bringing to bear the firm's full resources, applying the firm's expertise in the areas of antitrust, banking and financial services, employment and employee benefits, environmental, intellectual property, real estate, and tax as needed. We have assisted clients with successful transactions throughout the United States, in Canada, and in several countries in Europe and Asia.
Representative Experience
We assisted Sprague Operating Resources with the $22 million acquisition of the natural gas marketing and electricity brokerage business assets of Metromedia Gas & Power, Inc. and its subsidiaries.
Pierce Atwood served as lead counsel to Casella Waste Systems in its $47 million acquisition of waste disposal assets in western Massachusetts and Albany, New York from publicly traded Republic Waste and its affiliates.
MoreRepresented Brascan Corporation/Great Lakes Hydro America (publicly traded real estate and power generation company headquartered in Toronto) in the acquisition out of bankruptcy of paper mills in Maine from Great Northern Paper Company. $140 Million Acquisition of Paper Mills (Bankruptcy District of Maine)
We represented the Town of East Millinocket, Maine in its acquisition of the East Millinocket mill, the former Great Northern Paper Co. LLC mill site. The acquisition was the culmination of over a year and half of work by town leaders and a variety of agencies to buy the property.
MoreAssistance and counsel on acquisition and development of new groundwater sources.
Represented Anthem Insurance Companies, Inc. in its $102.5 million acquisition of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maine.
Pierce Atwood participated in Backyard Farms’ transition to the Mastronardi Family. As a wholly-owned affiliate of Mastronardi Produce, Ltd., Backyard Farms will continue to grow its operations and maintain its successful recipe for producing high-quality greenhouse-grown tomatoes while providing excellent employment opportunities for Mainers.
Pierce Atwood advised BTU International, a publicly traded global supplier of thermal processing equipment, in a stock for stock, tax-free merger with Amtech (NASDAQ: ASYS), a global supplier of production and automation systems.
Pierce Atwood acted as real estate and environmental permitting counsel for Calpine Corporation in its $530 million acquisition of the 809 MW Fore River Generating Station in North Weymouth, Massachusetts from Exelon Corporation in 2014. Pierce Atwood attorneys from the Real Estate, Energy, Environmental and State and Local Tax practice groups worked seamlessly to analyze and resolve the many complex land use, tax, and environmental issues. The initial bid preparation through purchase agreement negotiation was accomplished in 15 weeks. Our work included analysis and management of complex tidelands, former coal ash disposal, dual fuel delivery requirement, and management of active MassHighway bridge relocation through the center of project site.
Represented Casella Waste Systems in connection with the acquisition of waste hauling and handling company, Oceanside Rubbish, Inc., based in Sanford, Maine.
Pierce Atwood represented Casella Waste Systems in the acquisition of Complete Disposal Company, Inc. and its subsidiary, United Material Management of Holyoke, Inc., owner and operator of a solid waste transfer station in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Represented Casella Waste Systems, Inc. in connection with the acquisition of waste hauling company Central Maine Disposal Corporation based in Fairfield, Maine.
Represented Cate Street Capital, Inc. in connection with acquisition, disposition, and financing of their portfolio of companies, including private placements, structured finance, tax advantaged finance, and traditional M&A activity. The Cate Street portfolio includes Red Desert (water reclamation facility); Sunlight Partners (solar technology development); Thermogen Industries (biocoal manufacturing); Purified Plastics (recycling and manufacturing facility); Burgess Biopower (75 MW renewable power generation facility) and Organic Nutrition Industries (renewable proteins).
Pierce Atwood represented Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc. in obtaining approval from the Maine Public Utilities Commission of Consolidated’s acquisition of FairPoint Communications, Inc. The all-stock transaction was valued at approximately $1.3 billion including debt and based on present equity value.
MoreRepresentation of Extreme Reach, Inc., the leading provider of video advertising management, delivery and measurement solutions across TV and digital media, in all-stock acquisition of Talent Partners, a Carlyle portfolio company.
Represented Fairchild Semiconductor in its acquisition of TranSiC, a Swedish semiconductor developer and manufacturer.
Pierce Atwood represented Mercy Health System of Maine in its consolidation with Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems (EMHS). In addition to the issues involved in any large M&A transaction, including transaction structuring, drafting and negotiation of definitive documents, comprehensive due diligence, and coordination of corporate governance and organizational integration, our team has also dealt with all of the issues inherent in hospital and health system mergers, acquisitions, affiliations, and similar transactions, such as antitrust concerns, HIPAA compliance, medical and executive staff retention and consolidation, benefit plan transition, and the navigation of other relevant federal and state regulatory and licensure issues applicable to the healthcare industry.
Representation of a major northeastern dairy products company in spinoff of Midwestern affiliate.
Representation of Great Bay Renewables, Inc. in connection with its acquisition by Altius Renewable Royalties Corp., a subsidiary of Canadian company Altius Minerals Corporation.
We represented Madison Paper Industries, a major pulp and paper company, in all corporate, environmental, and real estate aspects of the sale of all of its remaining Maine assets in three separate transactions to three different, unrelated parties. Facilities sold included pulp and paper production facilities, hydropower facilities, and a closed solid waste landfill.
In a multi-office effort, a team of Mergers & Acquisitions attorneys from our Business Group represented a major Northeastern food products company in the complex spinoff of a significant subsidiary in a transaction valued at over $128 million. This transaction involved exhaustive due diligence, complex transition arrangements and intricate indemnification arrangements.
Working together, our Business and Trusts & Estates lawyers helped our client Tom’s of Maine negotiate the sale of a controlling interest in the company to Colgate-Palmolive, in which the family retained a 16% interest.