William H. Aaronson
Head of Mergers & Acquisitions. Advises clients on public and private M&A transactions, joint ventures, shareholder activism and general corporate matters.
Will is head of our Mergers & Acquisitions group. He advises clients on public and private M&A transactions, joint ventures and other corporate partnering arrangements. He also advises companies on corporate governance matters, shareholder activism and general corporate matters.
Experience highlights
- Advanced Accelerator Applications’ acquisition by Novartis
- Bath & Body Works (f/k/a L Brands) in the Victoria’s Secret spinoff
- Chemtura’s sale to Lanxess
- Comcast’s:
- Superior proposal to acquire Sky plc
- Acquisitions of AT&T Broadband, NBCUniversal, Craftsy, Daily Candy, Fandango and Plaxo
- Investments in various regional sports networks
- Elliott Management’s sale of AC Milan to RedBird Capital Partners
- Emera’s acquisition of TECO Energy
- FMC’s IPO and spin-off of Livent
- Hexion’s:
- Sale to American Securities
- Sale of its epoxy businesses to Westlake Chemical
- Livent’s
- Merger of equals with Allkem
- Investment in Nemaska Lithium
- Lydall’s acquisition by Unifrax
- MasterCard International’s:
- Acquisition of Applied Predictive Technologies
- Acquisition of the TNS Gateway Services business
- Millicom’s:
- Acquisition of Telefónica’s assets in Panama and Nicaragua
- Acquisition of Cable Onda
- NBCUniversal’s:
- Acquisition of DreamWorks Animation
- Combination of Fandango with Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes
- Acquisition of The Blackstone Group’s 50% interest in the Universal Orlando theme park
- Sale of its minority interest in A&E
- Novo Nordisk’s acquisitions of certain Catalent sites from Novo Holdings, Forma Therapeutics, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Emisphere Technologies and Neotope Neuroscience
- Rentokil Initial’s acquisition of Terminix
- Shearman & Sterling’s merger with Allen & Overy
- Sitio Royalties’ merger with Brigham Minerals
- Solvay’s:
- Acquisitions of Chemlogics and Cytec Industries
- Divestiture of its Eco Services business
- SSW Partners’ acquisition of Veoneer with Qualcomm and subsequent sale of Veoneer’s Active Safety business to Magna and Restraint Control Systems business to AIP
- Suez’s acquisition of GE Water & Process Technologies and sale of a minority stake in Suez Water Resources
- Sun Pharma’s acquisition of Concert Pharmaceuticals
- TE Connectivity’s:
- Acquisitions of ADC Telecommunications, Creganna Medical Group, Deutsch Group SAS, Measurement Specialties and SEACON Group
- Divestitures of its touch solutions, wireless, integrated products and automotive sensors businesses
- Technip’s:
- Merger with FMC Technologies
- Acquisition of Global Industries
- Acquisition of Stone & Webster Process Technologies from The Shaw Group
- Technip Energies’ spinoff from TechnipFMC
Insights
News
Credentials
Recognition
Chambers USA – Corporate/M&A, New York
Legal 500 U.S. – M&A: Large Deals ($1bn+)
BTI Consulting Group – “BTI Client All-Star,” 2016
The New York Times listed Will, along with several other Davis Polk partners, as one of the leading dealmakers on Wall Street under the age of 40 (“Facebook of Wall Street’s Future,” NYT, Oct. 3, 2007).
Education
- magna cum laude
- Phi Beta Kappa
Professional history
- Partner, 2003-present
- Head of Client Development, 2016-2017
- Davis Polk since 1995
- Northern California office, 2004-2006
Qualifications and admissions
- State of California
- State of New York