Ivan Schlager is head of the firm’s National Security practice. He represents a diverse group of clients ranging from defense companies, major telecommunications providers and media and technology companies to private equity firms and companies in the financial services, manufacturing and health care industries.
Mr. Schlager provides counsel on structuring, negotiating and documenting transactions to address regulatory issues including approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). He also has assisted in the development of successful regulatory and legislative strategies for a number of major M&A transactions.
Mr. Schlager has significant experience in navigating Exon/Florio reviews before CFIUS and negotiating national security agreements. He has developed innovative structures to address national security issues in some of the largest and most complex cross-border transactions. He also assists clients with industrial security (including mitigation of foreign ownership, control or influence (FOCI)), export control and government contracting issues.
Mr. Schlager has negotiated landmark national security agreements for telecommunications and telecommunications equipment, defense and aerospace, and technology companies. These first-of-their-kind deals include representation of:
- Sprint Nextel Corporation in the most comprehensive network security agreement to date, and in its $21.6 billion sale of a 78 percent stake to SoftBank Corporation (Japan) and the related $3.1 billion 1 percent convertible bond issues, as well as a $2.5 billion acquisition of the remaining 50 percent stake in Clearwire Corporation that it did not already own;
- China Huaxin Post and Telecommunications Economy Development Centre in its $362 million acquisition of the Enterprise business of Alcatel-Lucent S.A. This was the first major telecommunications acquisition by a Chinese entity; and
- Alcatel in its merger of equals with Lucent Technologies Inc. This merger was one of the largest and most complex Exon/Florio cases filed with CFIUS. He led the Skadden team that negotiated a landmark national security agreement and a special security agreement covering certain government business conducted by Bell Labs.
- Freescale Semiconductor, Ltd. and a private equity consortium including The Blackstone Group L.P., The Carlyle Group LP, Permira Funds (United Kingdom) and TPG Capital, L.P. in Freescale’s $11.8 billion acquisition by NXP Semiconductors NV;
- GoldStone Investment Co., Ltd. as a member of a consortium, which includes Hua Capital Management Co., Ltd. and CITIC Capital Holdings Limited, in its $1.9 billion acquisition of OmniVision Technologies, Inc., a developer of advanced digital imaging solutions.
- Dubai Aerospace Enterprise Ltd. in two major acquisitions of aviation properties owned by The Carlyle Group: Arizona-based Piedmont/Hawthorne Holdings, Inc. for $766 million and Standard Aero Acquisition Holdings, Inc. for $1 billion;
- Applied Materials, Inc. with the CFIUS aspects of its $9.4 billion acquisition of Tokyo Electron Limited (Japan);
- C.V. Starr & Co., Inc. with the national security aspects of its joint venture with China Taiping Insurance Group Ltd.;
- Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Pte. Ltd. (GIC), a sovereign wealth fund, in its co-investment with Global Logistic Properties Limited to acquire IndCor Properties, Inc. from Blackstone Real Estate Advisors for $8.1 billion;
- TTM Technologies, Inc. in its acquisition of Viasystems Group, Inc. The combined company will be one of the world’s leading printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturers.
Prior to joining Skadden, Mr. Schlager served as the Democratic chief counsel and staff director to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, where he was responsible for supervising the professional staff of seven subcommittees, as well as devising the Democrats’ legislative strategy for the full committee. In this role, Mr. Schlager worked in a bipartisan fashion on implementation of Exon/Florio; implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996; legislative proposals to enhance the deployment of broadband technology; the WTO Telecommunications Agreement/WTO implementing legislation; and NAFTA.
Mr. Schlager was a senior adviser to former Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., in the 2004 presidential campaign. He also serves on the board of visitors of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University.
Education:
- J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 1987
- B.A., Northwestern University, 1984
Admissions:
- California
- District of Columbia
Cost
Rate : $$$
