Sterling Check Corp.’s $2.2 Billion Acquisition by First Advantage Corporation

On October 31, 2024, Sterling Check Corp. announced the closing of its acquisition by First Advantage Corporation, with a transaction value of approximately $2.2 billion. Sterling and First Advantage are both global providers of technology‑enabled background and identity verification services. As publicly announced, the companies entered a merger agreement on February 29, 2024, and received second requests from the Department of Justice on May 28, 2024. The parties announced the satisfaction of regulatory closing conditions on October 29, 2024. Cravath represented Sterling on all antitrust matters in connection with the transaction.

The Cravath team was led by partners Christine A. Varney, Jesse M. Weiss and Michael J. Zaken and included of counsels Scott B. Reents and Michael B. Singer, associates Lavinia M. Hecht and Jordan A. Rogers, foreign associate attorney Aleine Obregón, senior discovery attorney Peter H. Truong and discovery attorneys Heikki Virks-Lee, Erik Harmon, Uri Kim and Peter Lee. Tal Bright also worked on the matter.