II-VI Completes Acquisition of Coherent

Compass Lexecon was retained by counsel at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, and Katz and K&L Gates to represent the parties in connection with II-VI’s acquisition of Coherent. The transaction combines two of the leading laser and optical components manufacturers in the world. The Compass Lexecon team assisted counsel on the merger review throughout the world, including before regulators in the United States, Germany, China, South Korea, and numerous others. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission cleared the transaction unconditionally in May 2021, Germany’s Bundeskartellamt cleared the transaction unconditionally in August 2021 (after a Phase 1 investigation), South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission cleared the transaction unconditionally in February 2022, and the China State Administration for Market Regulation – the final remaining clearance needed to close the transaction – cleared the transaction with modest conditions on June 28, 2022. Compass Lexecon analyzed a variety of horizontal and vertical antitrust issues across a multitude of activities in the laser supply chain in which the parties compete, and the global antitrust regulators relied heavily on submissions and data stemming from this analysis as provided by Compass Lexecon in their respective decisions to clear the transaction.

Compass Lexecon’s team was led by Jon Orszag and Jorge Padilla globally, and included experts from around the world with expertise in particular regions: David Weiskopf and Guillermo Israilevich in the U.S., Thilo Klein and Christopher Milde in Germany, and Elizabeth Wang and Kun Huang in China. This team of experts was supported by a team led by Jason Wu and Bo Bourke, and included Albert Riera, Aston Zhong, Jake Cheng, Bella Li, Martina Kaplanova, Janice Shiu, Manuel Frewer, Wendy Wei, Siyi Chen, Zain Ul Abideen Shahid, Gale Chen, and Shantanu Sampath. Compass Lexecon worked closely with Ilene Gotts from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, and Katz, Allen Bachman, Drew Mann, and Lauren Donahue from K&L Gates, Thorsten Mäger and Stefanie Budde from Hengeler Mueller, Joseph Rancour, Thorsten Goetz, and Kexin Li from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Philip Monaghan and Lining Shan from O’Melveny & Myers, and Claire Jeffs from Slaughter and May.