Alborz Tolou

Kirkland & Ellis advised Los Angeles-based WEBTOON Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ: WBTN) on its initial public offering, which priced on June 26, 2024. WEBTOON is a leading global entertainment company and home to some of the world’s largest storytelling platforms where a vibrant community of creators and users discover, create and share content. The offering consists of 15 million shares of common stock to be issued and sold by WEBTOON at an IPO price of $21 per share. In connection with the offering, WEBTOON has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2.25 million shares of common stock to cover over-allotments. Concurrently with the offering, an affiliate of NAVER has agreed to purchase $50 million of common stock at the IPO price in a private placement transaction. The common stock began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “WBTN” on June 27, 2024, and the IPO is expected to close on June 28, 2024, subject to customary closing conditions. Read the WEBTOON press release The Kirkland team was led by capital markets partners Michael Kim, Josh Korff, Alborz Tolou, Christina Thomas and Ann Becchina, and associates Kaangrok Yoo, Elise Wang, Sean Choi, Sandy Park and Richard Hong; corporate partners Edward Lee, Shaun Mathew and Evan Johnson and associates Inhae Song, Seung Bo Choi and Vera Lee; antitrust & competition partner Michael Thorpe; employment & labor partner Christine Lacku; ESG & Impact partner Abbey Raish; executive compensation partners Rohit Nafday, Stephanie Jeane and John Kleinjan and associates Grace Zagorskis, Rebecca Arnall and Michal Galayevich; government & internal investigations partners Daniel Gerkin and Nick Niles and associate Zach Sommers; investment funds partner Joshua Westerholm; litigation partners Stefan Atkinson, Kim Nemirow and William Pruitt and associate Sabrina Schulman; tax partners David Grenker, Adam Kool and Jake Jung and associate Joseph Riddle; and technology & IP transactions partners Seth Traxler, Bernadette Coppola, Kevin Jacobsen and Jacqueline Clover and associates Donovan Suh and Jessie Perlman.

Jun 27

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis advised Clearlake and its portfolio company Alkegen, a global specialty materials platform providing high performance materials used in advanced applications, in a refinancing transaction that provides enhanced liquidity to capitalize on ongoing market recovery and operational initiatives to drive growth. The financing transaction included a new $1,925 million first-lien term loan and first-lien senior secured notes and a new $200 million first-out revolving credit facility to refinance in full the Company’s existing first lien term loans, pay down outstanding borrowings under the Company’s revolver, extend maturities from 2025 to 2029 and provide additional liquidity. In addition, a majority of existing holders of Alkegen’s secured and unsecured notes due 2028 and 2029 exchanged their notes for new second lien notes due 2029. Alkegen separately commenced an offer to exchange all of the remaining secured and unsecured notes for new second lien notes. Read the transaction press release The Kirkland team was led by debt finance partners Dave Nemecek and Andrew Hurley; and capital markets partners Josh Korff, Ross Leff and Alborz Tolou; and included tax partners Anne Kim and Liam Murphy; restructuring partners Steve Serajeddini and Yusuf Salloum; corporate partners Luke Guerra and Eric Cohen; debt finance associates Joey Bloodworth, Jaycee Yao, Alex Bender and Jay Jemison; capital markets associates Elise Wang, Pratik Das, Sean Choi, Jihao Ding and Sooyeon Lee; tax associate Matthew Wahlquist; restructuring associate Michael Sloman; and corporate associate Joanne Moon.

Oct 1

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis advised Vista Equity Partners and its portfolio company LogicMonitor, a leading SaaS-based hybrid observability platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI), in connection with a transformative $800 million investment of new equity and strategic financing from a consortium of investors including PSG, Golub Capital and others. Vista Equity Partners will remain the controlling shareholder in LogicMonitor, which the transaction values at approximately $2.4 billion, including debt. Read the transaction press release The Kirkland team included capital markets lawyers Josh Korff and Alborz Tolou; corporate lawyers Vlad Kroll and Benjamin Jain; debt finance lawyers Sonali Jindal, Doug Tedeschi and Tanya Embers; executive compensation lawyers Rohit Nafday and Annemarie Mierzejewski; and tax lawyers David Kung, Heidi Yuen and Zak Morozov.

Nov 22

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis advised GI Partners and its portfolio company Togetherwork, a leading provider of mission-critical, integrated software and payment solutions to groups and organizations, on Park Square Capital’s strategic investment in Togetherwork. This investment will support Togetherwork in building its comprehensive group management, member engagement, and financial solutions that enable organizations across multiple verticals to grow revenue, streamline operations, increase efficiency and build stronger communities. Read GI Partners' press release The Kirkland team was led by corporate partners Stuart Casillas, Vlad Kroll and Eva Mak and associates Alex Dayneka-Hayes, Connor O’Flaherty and Emily Barber and capital markets partners Josh Korff and Alborz Tolou and associates Elise Wang and Jacob Levy. The team also included tax partners David Kung and Jessica Yeh and associate Pamela Ho; executive compensation partners Rohit Nafday and Anthony Ji and associate Devin Kern; banking regulatory partner Ed del Hierro; and debt finance partner Austin Glassman and associates Christian Rivas, Joseph Grib and Joelle Ibrahim.

Jul 2

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis advised Bain Capital Private Equity portfolio company Rocket Software, Inc., a global technology leader driving modernization for the world’s largest companies, on its definitive agreement to acquire the Application Modernization and Connectivity business of OpenText (NASDAQ: OTEX) (TSX: OTEX), for a total purchase price of $2.275 billion. The combined entity will offer a compelling portfolio of solutions to support the world’s largest companies in their modernization and hybrid cloud journeys. The deal is expected to close in Q2 2024, subject to receipt of applicable regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Read Rocket Software’s press release The Kirkland team was led by corporate partners Chris Elder, Matthew O’Brien and Andrew Struckmeyer and associate Zoe Quick; technology & IP transactions partners Martin Schwertmann and Vladimir Khodosh and associate Derek Ventling; debt finance partners Andrew Idrizovic and Lee Discher and associate Matt Stummer; capital markets partners Sophia Hudson, Julia Danforth and Alborz Tolou; tax partners Polina Liberman, Mike Carew and Alan Walker; and executive compensation partner Deidre Kalenderian.

Nov 28

1 min