Named among Texas Lawyer’s “Most Effective Dealmakers,” Chris May is Co-Managing Partner of our Houston office. He specializes in mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions across a wide range of industries, with a particular focus on the energy and digital infrastructure sectors. Chris is top-ranked by Chambers USA for private equity buyouts, and regularly represents some of the world’s most sophisticated private equity firms and corporations in a variety of complex public and private acquisition and divestiture transactions.
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Work Highlights
- Silver Lake Partners in its announced acquisition of Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. at an equity value of $13 billion and enterprise value of $25 billion
- KKR in a number of transactions, including its: acquisition of the remaining 37% stake of Global Atlantic for $2.7 billion; recapitalization of Drawbridge Realty’s $1.7 billion office portfolio by Global Atlantic; and financing of Freeman’s acquisition of Sparks
- DigitalBridge Group and IFM Investors in their $11 billion acquisition of Switch
- BlackRock’s Long Term Private Capital Fund in a number of transactions including its investment in Authentic Brands Group, Summit Companies, Paradigm Oral Health and Alacrity Solutions
- BlackRock’s Diversified Infrastructure team in a number of transactions, including its transaction with GasLog; its acquisition of Vanguard Renewables; and its Gigapower joint venture with AT&T
- GI Partners’ data infrastructure fund in multiple transactions, including its: announced acquisition of DQE Communications LLC; acquisition of Rise Broadband; and acquisition of ORBCOMM Inc.
- Riverstone Credit Partners and Summit Partners Credit Advisors in connection with the launch of R3 Renewables LLC in a joint venture with Peabody
- Transaction Data Systems (TDS) in the merger of the Outcomes™ business of Cardinal Health into TDS
Accolades
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Chambers USA (Band 1 Ranking for Private Equity Buyouts – Texas)
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Texas Lawyer “Most Effective Dealmakers” 2022
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Law360 “Rising Star” 2015—2016
Education
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Yale Law School, 2002 J.D.
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Wake Forest University, 1999 B.S.
summa cum laude
Christopher May is Co-Managing Partner of Simpson Thacher’s Houston office, where he specializes in mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions across a wide range of industries, with a particular focus on the energy and digital infrastructure sectors. Named among Texas Lawyer’s “Most Effective Dealmakers,” Chris regularly represents some of the world’s most sophisticated private equity firms and corporations in a variety of complex public and private acquisition and divestiture transactions. He is top-ranked for private equity buyouts by Chambers USA, where clients describe him as “calm under pressure and pragmatic,” and as a lawyer who is “very smart, very practical and focused on getting a result.”
Chris’s recent experience includes the representation of:
- Silver Lake Partners in its announced acquisition of Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. at an equity value of $13 billion and enterprise value of $25 billion;
- KKR in a number of transactions, including its: acquisition of the remaining 37% stake of Global Atlantic for $2.7 billion; recapitalization of Drawbridge Realty’s $1.7 billion office portfolio by Global Atlantic; and financing of Freeman’s acquisition of Sparks;
- DigitalBridge Group and IFM Investors in their $11 billion acquisition of Switch;
- BlackRock’s Long Term Private Capital Fund in a number of transactions including its investment in Authentic Brands Group, Summit Companies, Paradigm Oral Health and Alacrity Solutions;
- BlackRock’s Diversified Infrastructure team in a number of transactions, including its transaction with GasLog; its acquisition of Vanguard Renewables; and its Gigapower joint venture with AT&T;
- GI Partners’ data infrastructure fund in multiple transactions, including its: announced acquisition of DQE Communications LLC; acquisition of Rise Broadband; and acquisition of ORBCOMM Inc.;
- Riverstone Credit Partners and Summit Partners Credit Advisors in connection with the launch of R3 Renewables LLC in a joint venture with Peabody; and
- Transaction Data Systems (TDS) in the merger of the Outcomes™ business of Cardinal Health into TDS
Chris received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 2002. He received his B.S. from Wake Forest University, summa cum laude, in 1999. Chris was previously named a “Rising Star” by Law360 in both the Energy and M&A categories.