Notable cases
In 1988, Simpson Thacher, led by longtime chairman Richard Beattie, advised KKR's $25.1 billion acquisition of RJR Nabisco.[19][20] Then the largest private-equity purchase in history; the details are memorialized in the book "Barbarians at the Gate."[20]
In 2004, Simpson Thacher represented the underwriters in Google's $2.7 billion IPO,[21] then the largest technology IPO.[22] In 2006, the firm represented Google in its $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube.[23][24]
In 2008, Simpson Thacher represented JPMorgan Chase in a loan repayment transaction that also unintentionally changed a different $1.5 billion secured loan into an unsecured loan, which caused JPMorgan Chase to suffer up to $1.5 billion of losses when the debtor General Motors declared bankruptcy in 2009. Although Simpson Thacher did not originate the error, it failed to catch the mistake — with one firm attorney praising debtor counsel Mayer Brown for a "nice job on the documents,".[25]
In 2010, the firm represented Tesla Motors in its IPO, the first IPO of a new U.S. car company since Ford Motor Co. in 1956.[26]
In 2012, Simpson Thacher assisted the underwriters in Facebook's $16 billion IPO, then the largest technology offering, and third-largest IPO in U.S. history.[27][21]
In 2014, the firm set a new record in its representation of Alibaba Group Holding Limited in its initial public offering, the largest IPO ever to be conducted.[28] The record-breaking IPO raised $25 billion, ending its first day of trading with a market capitalization of $231 billion.[29]
In 2016, the firm represented Microsoft in its $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn.[30]
In 2018, the firm represented Microsoft in its $7.5 billion acquisition of GitHub.[31]
In January 2025, the firm represented Spindrift in its $650 million sale to Gryphon Investors.[32]
In 2026, a merger between food service companies Aramark and Entier was blocked by the United Kingdom's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CMA) after Simpson Thacher & Bartlett missed a deadline to file an appeal due to what it called "misinterpretation of the rules", making it the first deal in over a year to be blocked by the CMA.[33]
