Kirkland Represents McDonald’s on Sale of McD Tech Labs to IBM

Kirkland & Ellis advised McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD), one of the world’s largest restaurant companies, on its agreement with IBM (NYSE: IBM), a leader in AI for business and AI-powered customer care, to further accelerate the development and deployment of McDonald’s Automated Order Taking (AOT) technology. Under the agreement, IBM will acquire McD Tech Labs, which was created to advance employee and customer facing innovations following McDonald’s 2019 acquisition of Apprente. This agreement will accelerate McDonald’s efforts to provide an even more convenient and unique customer and crew experience. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in December 2021.

Read the McDonald’s and IBM press release  

The Kirkland team was led by corporate partners Eric Schiele, Marshall Shaffer, Chelsea Darnell and Jaye Kasper, corporate associates Don Lee and Maxwell Eichner, technology & IP transactions partners Adam Petravicius, Shellie Freedman and Amber Harezlak and associate RJ McLaughlin, and executive compensation partners Michael Krasnovsky and Matthew Wood and associate Karsten Busby.