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- The firm provided legal counsel for client Global Mail Express, who raised $30 million in a Series D Round of financing from investor Light Speed Ventures and other existing investors. Global Mail Express is an express package delivery service company, who has raised $100 million in four years.
The deal -- from term sheet to closing -- was completed in less than a week. Partner David Calhoun and associate Scott Allen handled this financing transaction on behalf of the firm.
- John Yates recapped his recent Tech Trek to India at the April 6 meeting of the Rotary Club of Atlanta. Mr. Yates, the head of the firm's Technology Group, described the opportunities and challenges of doing business in India. He also played video he shot during his travels that highlighted the many economic and social contrasts apparent in the Asian country.
His appearance was in conjunction with a presentation by Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine and former Republican Presidential candidate. Mr. Forbes’ remarks focused on what caused the nation’s current financial crisis and what might best get us out of it.
- Partner Grant Collingsworth represented FTRANS Corp. in a recent $3 million funding deal. The investors in the Series C funding round include Total Technology Ventures LLC, New Atlantic Ventures and Greenhill SAVP. Atlanta-based FTRANS Corp. provides innovative technology solutions for financial institutions and businesses.
- MMM represented Noble Investment Group in its acquisition of the Hyatt Regency Valencia and Santa Clarita Conference Center in Los Angeles County, California. Tom Gryboski and Lisa Scheid advised the privately-owned firm in the transaction. The hotel and conference center are located in a planned community in the vibrant Santa Clarita Valley, which CNN/Money magazine ranks among the top 25 places to live in the U.S. The 244-room first class hotel is integrated into the approximately one million square foot mixed-use development, Valencia Town Center. This is the company's twelfth acquisition in the Noble Hospitality Fund, LLC, a fully discretionary private equity real estate fund. MMM also advised Noble in the establishment of that fund.
- The American-Israel Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Region, has chosen MMM Partner Heath Linsky to serve on its Board of Directors for 2008-2009. Mr. Linsky is a partner in the firm's corporate, securities and real estate capital markets groups. The Chamber is a bi-national business association with the mission of increasing economic development by fostering understanding, cooperation, and business relationships between Israel and the Southeast. It has been involved in more than $950 million in completed transactions since its founding in 1992. More than 70 Israeli companies have U.S. or regional headquarters in the Southeast.
- MMM's Ed Hirsch represented Intersouth Partners in the recent $5 million Series A financing round for Beeco, Inc. Beeco is a semiconductor company created with technology developed at RTI International, which led the funding round along with Intersouth. The financing will be used to launch the company, expand the management team and continue product development.
- MMM's Ed Hirsch, Scott Allen and Chris Maxwell represented Atlanta-based Vitrue, Inc. in its acquisition of New York- based social media marketer UGENmedia. Vitrue provides industry leading expertise to Fortune 1000 brands, agencies and publishers to engage consumers in social media promotional programs, branded communities and distributed applications, creating powerful two-way dialogues. Together, Vitrue and UGENmedia provide a global platform that connects social media sites with brands and agencies to tap into the power of crowds to create authentic content and measurable experiences. Vitrue was founded in 2006.
- John Yates, who Chairs MMM's Technology practice, has been re-appointed to another three year term on the board of the Technology Association of Georgia, a large influential technology trade association. Yates is also a co-founder of the group.
- Grant Collingsworth is advising Visiprise, Inc. in negotiations for the Alpharetta company's acquisition by SAP AG (NYSE: SAP). SAP announced its intention to acquire Visiprise on June 17. SAP is the world's leading provider of business software, offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. Visiprise is a privately-held, leading provider of manufacturing execution software solutions delivering integrated manufacturing operations to companies of all sizes. It serves more than 60 industry-leading, global customers including many existing SAP customers in discrete manufacturing industries including high tech, aerospace and defense, automotive and medical device. With the addition of Visiprise, SAP will deliver on its "Perfect Plant" strategy to bring together core SAP solutions with the software, hardware and services offerings of ecosystem partners to drive innovation for discrete manufacturers.
- MMM partner Ed Hirsch advised Tampa-based Persystent Technologies in raising an $11.6 million round of funding. Persystent says its automatic PC repair and high-speed imaging solution "transforms today's computers from their current state of unpredictability and vulnerability to a new solid state of continuous computing." Persystent CEO Joe Loughry says the funding will help build a scalable and sustainable business with greater emphasis on marketing, sales and continued product development. Persystent's clients include the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army and the Pentagon as well as several private businesses. Investors included ABS Ventures of Boston and Valhalla Partners of Virginia, with participation from existing investors.
- Morris, Manning & Martin assisted green-tech client, SmartSynch, the smart meter startup, in raising an additional $20 million in financing, the latest funding coming from Credit Suisse. This brings the total financing for the Jackson, Mississippi-based startup to $80 million. The MMM team includes partners Carl Erhardt and John Yates, and associate Scott Allen.
- River Cities Capital Funds led a recent Series A financing round for EndoChoice Inc., an emerging leader in distribution and development of GI Endoscopy medical devices. Ed Hirsch, Scott Allen and Chris Maxwell represented River Cities in the transaction. EndoChoice will use the funds for general working capital purposes to accelerate its growth in the GI Endoscopy industry. River Cities manages $390 million in four private equity funds that focus primarily on providing expansion-stage equity to healthcare and information technology companies.
- MMM Partner Grant Collingsworth represented FTRANS, Corp. in a recent financing round. Greenhill SAVP announced May 1 that it led the $7.5 million financing round with an investment of $2.5 million. It was joined by existing institutional investors Total Technology Ventures and New Atlantic Ventures (formerly Draper Atlantic). FTRANS (www.ftrans.net) delivers a web-based service that integrates and processes transactions between business to business sellers, buyers and banks.
- MMM represented Silverpop, a leading provider of on-demand marketing technology, in a recent $15 million funding round. Partner Grant Collingsworth and associate Scott Allen represented Silverpop. The funds are earmarked for international expansion, R&D acceleration and to fund additional acquisitions to round out the company's on-demand marketing suite. The deal caps a fourth consecutive year of record-breaking revenue and profits for Silverpop. The firm has been recognized by Deloitte as the second fastest-growing technology company in Georgia. Silverpop is the only company consistently named by Jupiter Research as one of the top two enterprise-oriented email service providers each of the last four years.
- MMM represented Noble Investment Group in two recent hotel acquisitions. Tom Gryboski and Kevin Wright primarily worked on the deals. In March Noble acquired the 19-story hotel, 295-room Kansas City Marriott Country Club Plaza Hotel. Noble announced the $52.8 million transaction and $8.8 million renovation on March 27. Then on April 10, Noble announced it had acquired the 126-room AmeriSuites Hotel in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg from an affiliate of VK Development for an undisclosed amount. It will undergo a comprehensive $5 million dollar repositioning, then re-open later this year as the Hyatt Place Chicago/Schaumburg.
Noble is a leading sponsor of private equity real estate funds and an integrated lodging and hospitality operating and development organization. The Chicago acquisition represents the eleventh acquisition through Noble Hospitality Fund, LLC. Last year MMM represented the fund in connection with the private placement of $310 million of limited liability company interests.
- Partners Brooks Binder and Cass Brewer will speak at the Georgia Nonprofit Summit 2008 on May 5 at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta. The event is the Southeast's largest gathering of nonprofit executives, board members, foundation staff, government decision-makers, and corporate leaders.
- Insurance Group co-chair Skip Myers has been quoted in a number of publications recently including Rough Notes, Risk Retention Reporter and Business Insurance about California's failed efforts to block an out of state risk retention group from doing business there. In addition to his work at MMM, Myers is also general counsel for the National Risk Retention Association.
- March 27, 2008's Daily Report has a front page story and photo about MMM's work on the Wood Partners deal. It also mentions Gerald Pouncey's work on behalf of Jacoby development's huge new Hapeville project.
- On March 12, 2008 Shelley E. Nixon presented a speech entitled, "Planning for the Care of our Furry Friends: Pet Trusts and Other Alternatives" at the Atlanta Bar Association's March Estate Planning & Probate Section Breakfast.
- March 12, 2008 - Congratulations to Dr. Tim Xia, Dr. Peter Zhou, Dr. John Liu, Sylvia Tsai, Marianne Arrington, Michelle Ellis and Jane Smith for their successful work helping the University of Arkansas Technology Development Foundation patent ground-breaking new technology involving TiO2-based nanowires. Tim and his team have been working with the University since 2006 to prepare and file eight US and PCT patent applications. The team is currently preparing several more patents for the University.
- The Daily Report used a photo of Mac Hunter, Brooks Binder and Lt. Gov. Cagle at the ROI of Giving in its After Hours online feature on February 25, 2008.
- Skip Myers is quoted in the February 25, 2008 issue of Business Insurance magazine about the IRS' decision to withdraw a proposed rule that would have stripped hundreds of captives of an important tax break.
- The Savannah Morning news ran an item February 11, 2007 quoting James Johnson in a story about a dispute between Merritt at Whitemarsh Island condo unit owners and the developer.
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