Scott A. Scheele

Since joining Kirkland, Scott has been involved in the following matters:

• AE Industrial Partners in its acquisition of Calca Solutions, a provider of hydrazine, from Arxada.
• AE Industrial Partners-backed American Pacific, a provider of additives used in solid rocket motors, in its $700 million sale to NewMarket.
• Aon in its pending sale of The Townsend Group, a provider of global real estate and real asset investment advisory services, to The Riverside Company, Bluerock Capital Markets, MLC Private Equity and Ten Capital Management.
• Blackstone and Vista Equity-backed Energy Exemplar in its acquisition of Adapt2 Solutions, a provider of power market operations solutions.
• Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners in their acquisition of Energy Exemplar, a provider of energy market simulation software, from The Riverside Company.
• Blackstone in its growth investment in Salas O’Brien, a provider of engineering and technical services.
• Braemont Capital in its acquisition of Loenbro, a provider of technical services to data center, infrastructure and industrial markets, from Tailwind Capital.
• Charter Communications in its $900 million joint venture with Comcast Corp.
• Dave & Buster’s Entertainment in its $835 million acquisition of Main Event, a family entertainment concept with 50 locations in the U.S., from Ardent Leisure Group and RedBird Capital.
• Sentinel Capital Partners-backed ECM Industries, a manufacturer and supplier of electrical products, in its $1.1 billion sale to nVent Electric.
• EQT in EQT Infrastructure VI Fund’s joint venture with T-Mobile to acquire Lumos, a provider of fiber optic internet, from EQT Infrastructure III Fund.
• Gallatin Point Capital in its partnership with American Family Insurance and in the $1.25 billion investment in TRUE, a reciprocal insurer.
• Growth Catalyst Partners in its sale of The Stable, a consumer brand agency, to Accenture.
• Dunes Point Capital in the sale of Harvey Building Products, a provider of windows and doors for the residential repair and remodel sector, to Cornerstone Building Brands.
• Fortune Brands as divestiture buyer in DOJ lawsuit challenging ASSA ABLOY’s $4.3 billion acquisition of Spectrum Brands’ HHI division.
• Hg Capital, in its strategic investment in CINC Systems.
• I Squared Capital in the joint venture between I Squared Capital-backed ISQ Whistler Holdings, Enbridge and MPLX to combine the Whistler Pipeline and Rio Bravo Pipeline project.
• Industrial Growth Partners-backed ASPEQ Heating Group, a provider of electrical heating solutions, in its $418 million sale to SPX Technologies.
• JBT Corporation in its pending €3.5 billion acquisition of Marel.
• KKR-backed PlayOn! Sports in its merger with rSchoolToday, a software and digital content provider for athletic administrators.
• Macquarie Infrastructure Partners-backed Lagoon Operating - Midland, a produced water pipeline transportation, disposal and reuse company, in its sale to Deep Blue Midland Basin.
• Macquarie Capital Principal Finance in its acquisition of Camin Cargo, a provider of independent testing, inspection and certification (TIC) services, from Metalmark Capital Partners.
• Old Republic in the $140 million sale of its Mortgage Insurance Business to Arch Capital Group.
• Oracle Corporation in its acquisition of EHR company Cerner for $28.3 billion.
• BC Partners on the sale of a minority stake in PetSmart, a provider of pet products and services, to Apollo.
• R1 RCM in its $4.1 billion acquisition of Cloudmed, a provider of Revenue Intelligence solutions for healthcare providers, from New Mountain Capital.
• Sumeru Equity Partners and Vitruvian Partners-backed Snow Software, a provider of technology intelligence solutions, in its sale to Flexera.
• Levine Leichtman Capital Partners-backed TRC Healthcare in its sale to Colibri Group.
• Transom Capital Group in the sale of Mackie, a manufacturer of professional audio products, to RODE Microphones.
• Levine Leichtman Capital Partners in the sale of Tropical Smoothie Cafe, a franchisor of fast casual restaurants, to Blackstone
• Harren Equity Partners-backed Velosio in its sale to Court Square Capital Partners.
• Harren Equity Partners-backed Virginia Tile Company in its sale to Galleher.
• A global media and entertainment company in connection with ESPN’s strategic partnership with the XFL.

Prior to joining Kirkland, Scott’s significant public investigations and cases involved:

• United States v. Liberty Latin America/AT&T (D.D.C. 2020). Complaint and settlement of Liberty’s $2 billion acquisition of AT&T’s wireless and wireline telecommunications business in Puerto Rico.
• United States v. T-Mobile/Sprint (D.D.C. 2019). Investigation of $26 billion merger of two national wireless carriers that resulted in a complaint and settlement through consent decree.
• United States v. AT&T/Time Warner (D.D.C. 2017). Extensive investigation and contested trial seeking to block the $100 billion vertical merger of the country’s largest video distributor (DirectTV) with a large content provider (Time Warner).
• United States v. CenturyLink/Level 3 (D.D.C. 2017). Complaint and settlement of CenturyLink’s $34 billion acquisition of Level 3’s telecommunications business.
• United States v. AT&T (C.D. Cal. 2016). Contested Sherman Act Section 1 litigation alleging information sharing among video distribution competitors regarding their intentions to distribute the Los Angeles Dodgers regional sports network. Shortly after briefing of AT&T’s motion to dismiss, the case was settled through a consent decree that obtained all relief sought in the Government’s prayer for relief.
• United States v. Charter/Time Warner Cable (D.D.C. 2016). Complaint and settlement of Charter Communication’s $90 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.
• Comcast/Time Warner Cable (2015). Investigation of Comcast’s proposed $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable – two incumbent cable providers that did not have overlapping territories. Comcast abandoned the merger.
• United States v. Sinclair/Perpetual (D.D.C. 2014). Complaint and settlement requiring divestiture of television station filed in connection with a nearly $1 billion acquisition.
• United States v. Gannett/Belo (D.D.C. 2013). Complaint and settlement requiring divestiture of television station filed in connection with a $2.2 billion acquisition.
• United States v. eBay (N.D. Cal. 2012). Contested complaint alleging a no-solicit and no-hiring agreement between eBay and Intuit. eBay ultimately settled via a consent decree following an Order denying its motion to dismiss.
• United States v. H&R Block/TaxACT (D.D.C. 2011). Contested litigation and trial involving the merger of two retail tax return preparation software providers.
• United States v. Google/ITA (D.D.C. 2011). Complaint and settlement requiring Google to continue to develop and license ITA’s QPX air travel software.
• Nasdaq/NYSE (2011). This proposed acquisition was abandoned after the Antitrust Division threatened to block the $10 billion deal.
• Google/Yahoo (2008). Yahoo and Google abandoned their advertising agreement after the Antitrust Division informed the companies that it would seek to block it.
• United States v. Oracle (N.D. Cal. 2004). Complaint and trial seeking to block Oracle’s cash tender offer for PeopleSoft, both leading providers of enterprise human relations and financial services software.
• United States v. Visa U.S.A., Inc. (S.D.N.Y. 2001). Investigation and civil trial against Visa and MasterCard. Favorable judgment affirmed on appeal.
• Community Publishers v. Donrey Media, Inc. (W.D. Ark. 1995). Trial to block merger of two newspapers in Northwest Arkansas.