There is a recent trend that German and European headquartered companies look for M&A targets in the U.S. to access the U.S. market. Vice versa, the relative strength of the dollar and improving financing conditions encourage U.S. buyers to seize upon transatlantic opportunity in Europe. These cross-border deals present both sides with many challenges, both from a cultural and a legal perspective.
After an introduction by Henning Bloss, speakers presented M&A related statistics and gave on overview of market trends in 2024, such as the impact of elections in EU, UK and the United States, as well as technological transformation.
The main part of the webinar focused on the comparison of U.S. and German style M&A. This included the specifics and differences in terms of e.g. purchase price adjustments, representations and warranties, conditionality, disclosure, liability limitations on general warranty breaches, W&I insurance, and escrow. In order to illustrate the topics in the best possible way, this was underpinned with experiences and examples from practice.
The speakers then took a closer look at the topics of FDI/CFIUS and merger control before presenting the possible structures of U.S. deals with a German buyer. The webinar ended with a Q&A session.
