Rocket Software acquires part of Open Text

Munich — The soft­ware company Rocket Soft­ware, Inc. has acqui­red the Appli­ca­tion Moder­niza­tion and Connec­ti­vity (“AMC”) divi­sion of Open Text, form­erly part of Micro­Fo­cus. — Rocket Soft­ware was advi­sed by the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Bird & Bird in various count­ries. At the US level, Rocket Soft­ware was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Kirk­land & Ellis. Bird & Bird had previously advi­sed Rocket Soft­ware on the acqui­si­tion of all shares in the German soft­ware company B.O.S..

Rocket Soft­ware has deca­des of expe­ri­ence solving complex IT chal­lenges for the largest and most inno­va­tive orga­niza­ti­ons. With the acqui­si­tion of the AMC busi­ness, Rocket Soft­ware can now offer its custo­mers moder­niza­tion soft­ware solu­ti­ons ranging from the main­frame to the cloud and has built a more diverse port­fo­lio that is closely aligned with custo­mer needs.

Bird & Bird advi­sed Rocket Soft­ware on the current tran­sac­tion in 27 juris­dic­tions mainly in Europe and Asia (Belgium, Bulga­ria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Nether­lands, Norway, Poland, Portu­gal, Roma­nia, Spain, Switz­er­land, Sweden, United King­dom, South Africa, Brazil, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Austra­lia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malay­sia, Singa­pore) with its own lawy­ers and retai­ned part­ner law firms. At the end of 2023, the focus was on support­ing Euro­pean aspects of the purchase agree­ment and then, follo­wing the agree­ment, on the trans­fer of AMC employees.

The purchase agree­ment was signed at the end of Novem­ber 2023 and concluded on May 1, 2024.

The coope­ra­tion between the law firm and Rocket Soft­ware came about through a cont­act between the Munich M&A part­ner Stefan Münch and Rocket Soft­ware. Munich employ­ment law part­ner Dr. Ralph Panzer and his team took the lead in support­ing Rocket Software’s people team and coor­di­na­ting the largely employ­ment law issues. Bird & Bird was once again able to demons­trate its exper­tise in advi­sing on inter­na­tio­nal projects in this transaction.

Consul­tant Rocket Software

Bird & Bird: Part­ner Stefan Münch, Coun­sel Dr. Chris­tina Lorenz, LL.M. and asso­cia­tes Kilian Hummel and Marina Dolina, LL.M. (all corporate/M&A, Munich/Frankfurt), part­ner Dr. Ralph Panzer (lead) and asso­cia­tes Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Koch, Chris­toph Lutz and Vincent Kirsch (all employ­ment law, Munich), part­ner Thomas Hey and asso­cia­tes Alisa Nent­wig and Julia Bellin­ger (all employ­ment law, Düssel­dorf), part­ner Dr. Rolf Schmich (tax law, Frank­furt), part­ner Amedeo Rampolla and asso­ciate Marco Preti (both employ­ment law, Milan (Italy)), part­ner Stefano Silves­tri and asso­cia­tes Linda Pietros­te­fani and Gior­gio Cesari (all corporate/M&A, Milan (Italy)), part­ner Miguel Pastur and asso­ciate Carlos Zabala (both employ­ment law, Madrid (Spain)), part­ner Lour­des Ayala, asso­cia­tes Anto­nio Balles­te­ros and Mónica Sangalli (all corporate/M&A, Madrid (Spain)), part­ner Natha­lie Dever­nay (employ­ment law, Lyon (France)), part­ner Bert­rand Levy, part­ner Etienne Guillou, asso­ciate Clémence Breuil and para­le­gal Laura Daut­huille (all corporate/M&A, Paris (France)), part­ner Philip Hart­man and asso­ciate Anne-Aimée Dabek­aus­sen (both employ­ment law, The Hague (Nether­lands)), part­ner Kata­rina Åhlberg and asso­ciate Dasha Arntyr (both employ­ment law, Stock­holm (Sweden)), part­ner Teea Kemp­pi­nen and asso­ciate Noora Hein­onen (both employ­ment law, Helsinki (Finland)), part­ner Pieter de Koster, part­ner Anton Aerts and asso­ciate Jehan de Wasseige (all employ­ment law, Brussels (Belgium)), part­ner Cedric Berck­mans, coun­sel Erik Holm­gren and asso­ciate Stan Prenen (all corporate/M&A, Brussels (Belgium)), Part­ner Brendan O’Brien, Asso­cia­tes Daniel Faul­k­ner and Nadine McMa­hon, Corpo­rate Para­le­gal Conor Delaney and Trai­nee Ed Carroll (all Corporate/M&A, Dublin (Ireland)), Part­ner Karo­lina Stawi­cka and Asso­ciate Pawel Wyre­bek (both Employ­ment Law, Warsaw (Poland)), Part­ner Diana Purdy and Asso­ciate Jacky Chan (both Employ­ment Law, Hong Kong), Part­ner Seow Hui Goh and Asso­ciate Saman­tha Lau (both Employ­ment Law, Singa­pore), Part­ner Sandra Seah and Coun­sel Jona­than Kao (both Corporate/M&A, Singapore).

In-house coun­sel: Matthew L. Vittig­lio (Asso­ciate Gene­ral Coun­sel, Walt­ham (United States)
Kirk­land & Ellis: Andrew Struck­meyer (Part­ner, Corpo­rate, Chicago (United States))

Law firms in Norway, Portu­gal, South Africa, Switz­er­land, Brazil, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and Malay­sia were also commissioned.