Davis Polk & Wardwell is advising Roche on its $46.8 billion acquisition of the 44% publicly-held interest in Genentech. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Roche will acquire the outstanding publicly held interest in Genentech for $95 per share in cash. The transaction has been approved by the special committee of Genentech’s board of directors.

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world’s leading research-focused health care groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. South San Francisco, California-headquartered Genentech is a leading biotechnology company.

The Davis Polk transaction team includes partners Arthur F. Golden, Christopher Mayer and John H. Butler and associates William J. Chudd, Alexander N. Macleod and Akshay Nagpal (not yet admitted), all of the New York office, and associate Peter M. Lamb of the Menlo Park office. The tax team includes partner Michael Mollerus and associate Niya Tang (not yet admitted), both of the New York office. Partner Jean M. McLoughlin and associate Bernice A. Grant, both of the New York office, are providing employment advice. Partner Steven S. Weiner and associate Vishnu Reddy, both of the Menlo Park office, are providing intellectual property advice. Partners Lawrence Portnoy and Joel M. Cohen and associates Scott B. Luftglass, Andrew D. Schlichter, Jason M. Spitalnick, Jane Marion Morril, Samir Kaushal, Katherine Swan (not yet admitted) and Edward Sherwin (currently on secondment), of the New York office, and partner Neal A. Potischman and associates Mark S. Kokanovich and David Lisson, of the Menlo Park office, are providing litigation advice. Partners Andrés V. Gil, Keith L. Kearney and Lawrence E. Wieman and associates Michael Segall, Fiona Watson, Margie Chan, Carson T. Stewart (currently on secondment) and Darren Mahone (not yet admitted) are providing financing advice. Kara N. Johnson and James M. Dean, of the New York office, and Angela Quach, of the Menlo Park office, are the legal assistants on the transaction.