Foster Swift has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, and other business combinations, reorganizations and divestitures. In these transactions, our team draws upon the firm’s talented pool of corporate, tax, pension, employment and environmental lawyers in a variety of areas, such as regulated industries (insurance, banking, healthcare and telecommunications), agriculture and food processing to effectively negotiate and close deals for our clients.
We approach each transaction with a comprehensive understanding of our client’s business, objectives, and definition of success. While risk is inherent in every deal, we take the time necessary to identify the risks that may impact value, and take steps to minimize or eliminate them. Our client-centric focus, practical solutions, and ability to nimbly adjust to fast-moving developments enable clients to consummate transactions in a manner consistent with their goals. In short, our right-sized deal teams, consisting of lawyers with skills to match the challenges at hand, deliver value each step of the way.
While we help clients close transactions of all sizes, we are particularly skilled at handling middle market transactions ranging from $5-$50 million—and have the track record to prove it. We represent buyers, sellers, financial advisors, shareholder groups, equity investors, and subordinated and senior lenders in both domestic and cross-border transactions. We also provide advice to clients on fiduciary duties of directors in connection with mergers, spin-offs and other extraordinary transactions, composition and operation of boards of directors and their committees, executive and director compensation, and corporate governance matters.
Foster Swift attorneys are significantly involved in transactions across a wide range of industries, including:
- Agriculture and Food Processing
- Banking
- Defense Sectors
- Healthcare
- Insurance
- Manufacturing
- Technology
- Telecommunications
Representative Experience
- Michigan family-owned business in connection with a multi-state business acquisition initiative
- Michigan bank holding company in connection with $110 million acquisition of Michigan-based bank holding company
- Michigan bank holding company in connection with $92 million acquisition of Michigan-based bank holding company.
- Client in connection with two private offerings of equity securities under Regulation D totaling $13 million
- Michigan bank holding company in connection with $840 million sale of its business to an out-of-state, publicly-held corporation
- Michigan manufacturer in connection with $44 million sale of its business to an out-of-state, publicly-held corporation
- Publicly-held corporation in connection with its "going private" transaction and issuance of $10 million of trust preferred securities
- Michigan food processor in connection with $20 million sale of its business to a private equity fund
- Family members in connection with the acquisition of an approximately $20 million agricultural manufacturing business from the prior generation
- Manufacturing client in connection with the purchase of an approximately $10 million business
Recent Blog Posts
Publications & Alerts
- In Crisis Lies Opportunity: Growth Through M&A During COVID-19, MiBiz, October 26, 2020
- Choosing Your Merger Partner, Foster Swift Business & Corporate Law Report, January 2013
- Software Licenses Do Not Automatically Transfer in a Merger or Acquisition, Foster Swift Business & Corporate Law Update, Spring 2010
Events
- The Past and Future of Equity Crowdfunding, Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC) Conference, October 19, 2018
News
- The Impact of PPP Loans on Mergers & Acquisitions, October 16, 2020
- Foster Swift Attorneys Named to 2021 Best Lawyers in America©, August 20, 2020
- Nows Speaks on Equity Crowdfunding at GCEC Conference, October 10, 2018
- 44 Foster Swift Attorneys Named to 2016 Best Lawyers in America® Roster, August 21, 2015
- Entrepreneur Institute of Mid-Michigan names Attorney Joel C. Farrar "Volunteer of the Year", June 11, 2015
- Foster Swift Attorney Randall Harbour named to position in the American Bar Association, August 20, 2013