Mark I. Greene is a partner in Cravath’s Corporate Department and serves as the Leader of its International Practice and as Chair of the Firm’s Business Development Group. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and securities matters, including advising on cross-border transactions, private equity deals, complex restructuring transactions, proxy fights, takeover defense and global securities offerings.
Mr. Greene has been repeatedly recognized as one of the country’s leading practitioners in the mergers and acquisitions area by, among others, Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business from 2007 through 2011; Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business in 2011; The Legal 500 in 2011; and PLC Which Lawyer? He was recognized by The Legal 500 in 2008 and 2009 for his work in private equity buyouts. Mr. Greene was also named by Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers in America in 2007 and by Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America in 2007, 2009/2010 and 2011. For the five-year period from 2006 to 2010, he was recognized as the second most valuable M&A lawyer in Germany by Welt am Sonntag. He was also ranked fifth in 2006 European M&A by Legal Week magazine.
Mr. Greene counts among his diverse client base Unilever, KPN, Novartis, Akzo Nobel, Saint-Gobain, Schneider Electric, Linde, Amdocs, Mylan, Stanley Black and Decker and Perry Capital.
Notable transactions include representing:
- Unilever in connection with numerous M&A transactions including the US$325 million sale of its Culver Specialty Brands division, which includes Mrs. Dash, Molly McButter, Sugar Twin, Bakers and Static Guard brands in the United States and Canada to B&G Foods, Inc.; its US$3.7 billion acquisition of U.S.-based Alberto-Culver Company and the sale of its Alberto VO5 brand in the U.S. and Puerto Rico from the Alberto Culver portfolio and the Rave brand globally from the Unilever portfolio to private equity firm Brynwood Partners VI L.P.; and its US$411.5 million acquisition of the TIGI professional hair product business and its supporting advanced education academies from the owners of the Toni & Guy Salons;
- Deutsche Boerse AG in connection with its proposed US$9.53 billion merger of equals with NYSE Euronext and the competing unsolicited proposal by Nasdaq OMX and Intercontinental Exchange, which was withdrawn;
- Mylan Inc. in connection with its US$550 million acquisition of Bioniche Pharma Holdings Limited; its €4.9 billion acquisition of the generic drug operations of Merck KGaA of Germany; and its acquisition of Synerx Pharma LLC;
- Novartis AG in connection with its US$470 million acquisition of Genoptix, Inc. and the US$5.5 billion sale of its Gerber business to Nestlé S.A.;
- Schneider Electric S.A. in connection with its US$1.5 billion acquisition of Pelco, Inc. and its US$6.1 billion acquisition of American Power Conversion Corporation;
- The Stanley Works in connection with its US$4.5 billion acquisition of The Black & Decker Corporation to create Stanley Black & Decker, a US$8.4 billion global industrial leader, in an all-stock transaction;
- Mangas Gaming, as U.S. counsel, in connection with its acquisition of 60% of the online gambling software business of GigaMedia Limited, including the Everest poker and casino brands;
- NuVox, Inc. in connection with its US$643 million acquisition by Windstream Corporation;
- Perry Capital, LLC in connection with its equity investment in Universal American Financial Corp., the proceeds of which were used by Universal American in connection with its US$630 million acquisition of MemberHealth, Inc. Mr. Greene also represented Perry Capital, LLC as part of a consortium led by iStar Financial Inc. in connection with the US$1.7 billion sale of TimberStar Southwest LLC to Mutual Financial Corp; and
- Royal KPN N.V. through its wholly owned subsidiary KPN B.V. in connection with its US$93.3 million acquisition of the 44% stake in iBasis Inc. not otherwise held by KPN.
Mr. Greene serves on the Trustee Council of Cornell University and is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, where he teaches a course on Mergers and Acquisitions. He is also a Trustee of the Randall’s Island Sports Foundation in New York City and serves on the Board of Advisors of the Institute for Law and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Greene is Contributing Editor of Getting the Deal Through: Securities Finance 2011, an overview of regulation in 27 jurisdictions worldwide. Additionally, he co-authored Corporate Law in Germany (2nd edition), an overview of the major principles of German corporate law, and the U.S. section of The Merger and Acquisitions Review.
Mr. Greene was born in Neponsit, New York. He received a B.A. from Cornell University in 1989 and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. After a clerkship with Hon. Charles Legge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, he joined Cravath in 1994 and became a partner in 2001.
Mr. Greene may be reached by phone at 212-474-1150 or by email at mgreene@cravath.com.