Hogan Lovells and Zhong Lun Law Firm are advising Chinese IT firm Unisplendour on its proposal to invest $3.78 billion in U.S. data-storage business Western Digital, which is being represented by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.
Unisplendour, which is a subsidiary of Chinese state-controlled enterprise Tsinghua Unigroup, will acquire about 15 percent of Western Digital’s issued and outstanding shares under the terms of the agreement. Western Digital said in a statement that it will use the money to pursue long-term initiatives for strategic growth and to boost its balance sheet.
No date was announced for the completion of the deal, which is subject to approval from regulators.
The trans-Pacific team from Hogan Lovells representing Unisplendour is headed by Beijing corporate partners Steven Robinson and Jun Wei and Washington corporate partners Glenn Campbell, Liz Donley and Warren Gorrell. Agnes Dover is handling government regulation matters, while Michele Harrington and Jan McDavid are working on the antitrust aspects of the transaction.
The Cleary team is led by New York partners Adam Fleisher, Matthew Salerno and Neil Whoriskey.
Earlier this year, Unisplendour spent $2.3 billion to acquire a controlling stake in Hewlett-Packard's server, storage and technology support services business in China.
