Howard L. Ellin

Howard Ellin is a corporate attorney concentrating in mergers and acquisitions, securities law and general corporate matters. He focuses on a wide variety of transactions involving various industry groups and sectors, including private equity and leveraged buyouts, public and private acquisitions, corporate restructurings and financings, and general corporate advice.

Mr. Ellin serves on Skadden’s Policy Committee. Mr. Ellin’s major M&A transactions and representations include:

• 21st Century Fox, Inc. in its $14.8 billion acquisition of the remaining stake in Sky plc it does not already own;
• 21st Century Fox, Inc. and News Corporation in its spin-off and separation of its publishing and entertainment businesses into two independent, publicly traded companies;
• Univision Communications Inc. in its $13.5 billion sale to a consortium of private equity investors that includes Texas Pacific Group; Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P.; Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC; Providence Equity Partners Inc.; and investor Haim Saban;
• Magazine sector transactions involving Rolling Stone LLC, Robb Report and Forbes Media LLC, among others;
• Spotify Limited, a digital music streaming service, in its acquisition of The Echo Nest Corporation, a music intelligence company;
• News Corporation in partnership with Permira Advisers Ltd., a private equity firm in the United Kingdom, in their proposed $3.7 billion going-private acquisition of NDS Group and subsequent $5 billion sale of NDS Group to Cisco Systems, Inc.;
• Bally Technologies, Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of gaming devices, in its $5.1 billion acquisition by Scientific Games Corporation, a supplier of instant-win lottery tickets and a manufacturer of lottery terminals;
• Poster Financial Group, Inc., a private equity firm, in its $215 million acquisition of Golden Nugget Las Vegas and Golden Nugget Laughlin from MGM Mirage; and in Poster’s sale of the Golden Nugget Hotels and Casinos to Landry’s Restaurants Inc.

Among the private equity sponsors that Mr. Ellin has advised are Wasserstein & Co., First Reserve Corporation, Windward Capital Partners, Castle Harlan, Colony Capital, TD Capital, Poster Financial Group and PSP Investments.

He also represents many companies in their dealings with private equity firms in going-private transactions, having represented Univision, National Financial Partners and AMC Entertainment Inc. when it was taken private by JP Morgan Partners and Apollo Investors.

Education:

• J.D., Harvard Law School, 1988
• B.S., Carnegie Mellon University, 1985

Admissions : New York

Associations:

• Member, Board of Trustees, Carnegie Mellon University
• Member, Board of Trustees, NALP Foundation