In one of the biggest non-energy transactions of the year Dallas-based CyrusOne, a data infrastructure real estate investment trust, has agreed to be acquired by KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners for a whopping $15 billion.
Under the agreement KKR and GIP will purchase all the outstanding shares of common stock in CyrusOne for $90.50 per share. Though based in Dallas, CyrusOne constructs, operates and services high-performance data processing and storage centers throughout the world.
A Texas-led team from Kirkland & Ellis advised KKR and the acquiring consortium on the transaction, which was reported in the offing on Friday by The Wall Street Journal.
The Kirkland team was led by Houston corporate partners Andy Calder and John Pitts, as well as Dallas partners Melissa Kalka and Ben Hardison. Rami Totari and Houston associate Brittany Scheier also advised, along with Dallas associates Abbey Zuech and Reese Gwin.
Partners Roald Nashi in Houston and Sebastian Chan in New York advised on debt and finance, while real estate partners Andrew Small and David Rosenberg pitched in from Chicago. Partner Julian Seiguer advised on capital markets from Houston.
Dentons also advised the acquiring consortium and KKR in the UK and Europe and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison advised GIP.
In-house duties at KKR were handled by Chris Lee and Vincent Napolitano, while Julie Ashworth helped guide the deal at GIP.
Financial advisors for the acquirors included Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Wells Fargo Securities, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan.
Three firms — Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Venable and Eversheds Sutherland — were legal advisors to CyrusOne.
Morgan Stanley and DH Capital were CyrusOne’s financial advisors.
CyrusOne’s general counsel is Robert Jackson, a graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (JD) who holds an LLM in taxation from the University of Florida Levin School of Law.
CyrusOne includes 200 of the Fortune 1000 corporations among its data center clients in Europe and the Western Hemisphere.