Simpson Thacher is representing affiliates of Centerbridge Partners, L.P. in connection with the acquisition of IBM Corporation’s marketing platform and portfolio of commerce software products designed for the marketing and advertising needs of companies’ chief marketing officers. The acquired products, which will be offered by a new standalone company, include Campaign Automation, Content Hub, Customer Experience Analytics, Intelligent Bidder, Marketing Assistant, Media Optimizer, Payments Gateway, Personalized Search, Price & Promotion Optimization, Real-Time Personalization and Universal Behavior Exchange. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close mid-year, subject to regulatory approvals.
Centerbridge will offer the above products—which include marketing automation tools, marketing analytics, an AI-powered content management system and an open ecosystem connector—via a new standalone company. Centerbridge is a private investment management firm that has approximately $28 billion under management and is dedicated to partnering with world-class management teams across targeted industry sectors to help companies achieve their operating and financial objectives.
The Simpson Thacher team for the transaction included Atif Azher, Ben Schaye, Naveed Anwar, Fred de Albuquerque, Ethan Kim, Kathey Guo, Christine Ristow and Adam Spaulding (M&A); Lori Lesser, Marcela Robledo, Genevieve Dorment, Elizabeth Gladstone and Gabriel Godoy-Dalmau (IP); Jennifer Levitt, Brian Steinhardt and Teresa Chen (Credit); Sophie Staples (Tax); Larry Moss, Alisa Tschorke and Nathan Utterback (Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits); and Richard Jamgochian and Kelly Karapetyan (Antitrust).