What Was at Stake
A leading pharmaceutical conglomerate sought to acquire a mid-cap European biotech firm. The transaction faced simultaneous antitrust review by the DOJ, the European Commission, and the UK Competition and Markets Authority — each with conflicting remediation demands and aggressive review timelines.
How We Approached It
Jonathan Blackstone assembled a bespoke cross-border team with fluency in each jurisdiction's regulatory climate. We pre-cleared the transaction informally with the DOJ before filing, engineered voluntary divestitures strategically sequenced to satisfy all three regulators simultaneously, and deployed parallel counsel teams in Brussels and London to ensure synchronized submissions. A custom regulatory tracker allowed real-time alignment across time zones.
What We Achieved
All three regulatory authorities cleared the transaction within the 90-day window — 40% faster than comparable tri-jurisdictional mergers. The voluntary divestiture package we negotiated retained over 94% of the original deal economics. The $2.8B deal closed on time with zero material modifications to the core transaction structure.