Mergers + Acquisitions

Morrison & Foerster's Tokyo office has the most active M&A practice of any global firm in Japan.

Our Tokyo attorneys have extensive experience in representing both Japanese and non‑Japanese companies in a broad range of transactions, including public and private acquisitions, complex carve outs, divisional spin-outs and the formation of strategic alliances and joint ventures, both in Japan and around the world.

We consistently represent many of Japan’s leading companies, including Fujitsu, Hitachi, MUFG, Ricoh, TDK and Toshiba. Our experience spans numerous industries, including technology, telecommunications, life sciences, banking & financial services, and cleantech. 

Key facts about our practice:

• Over 50 M&A attorneys in Japan.

• Handled over $40 billion in cross-border M&A transactions in Tokyo in 2012.

• Ranked #1 international legal advisor for Japan M&A (by deal value) by Thomson Reuters, Mergermarket, and Bloomberg for 2012.

• The only international firm to be ranked Tier 1 for M&A in Japan by each of: Chambers Global and Chambers Asia; The Legal 500 Asia Pacific; and International Financial Law Review (IFLR1000).

Some of the M&A transactions on which we have advised in 2010 - 2013:

• SoftBank's $20.1 billion acquisition of Sprint.
   
• Alibaba's $7.6 billion share repurchase.
   
• Hitachi's $4.8 billion sale of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST) to Western Digital.
   
• MUFG'S $5 billion combination of its securities business with Morgan Stanley (Japan).
   
• Astellas $4 billion acquisition of OSI Pharmaceuticals.
   
• Alibaba's $4 billion restructuring of Alibaba and Alipay.com.
   
• Terumo's $2.6 billion acquisition of CaridianBCT.
   
• Elpida's $2.5 billion sale to Micron.
   
• Toshiba's $2.3 billion acquisition of Landis+Gyr.
   
• SoftBank's $2.3 billion acquisition of eAcess.
   
• Sprint’s $2.2 billion take private of Clearwire.
   
• Toshiba's $2 billion NAND flash JV with SanDisk.
   
• Sumitomo Corp's $1.9 billion investment in Usiminas.
   
• Global Logistics Properties' $1.4 billion logistics properties joint ventures.
   
• Toshiba Tec's $850 million acquisition of IBM's point-of-sale solutions business.
   
• Taiyo Pharmaceutical's $1.3 billion sale of a controlling stake to Teva. 
   
• NTT Data's acquisition of Keane.
   
• ON Semiconductor's $600 million acquisition of Sanyo Semiconductor.
   
• Sankei Building's $430 million tender offer by Fuji Media.
   
• Kirin's $400 million beverage joint venture with China Resources.
   
• Ajinomoto’s $175 million acquisition of Althea Technologies.
   
• Avnet's tender offer for Internix.
   
• Fujitsu's acquisition of Toshiba's cell phone business.
   
• Krosaki Harima's acquisition of a controlling stake in Tata Refractories.
   
• Taisho Pharma's acquisition of HOE Pharma.
   
• GREE's acquisition of U.S. online gaming company OpenFeint.
   

View all representative matters.