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Image: Eric Schiele

Eric Schiele

Partner, Corporate Department

Overview

Eric Schiele is a New York-based partner in the Mergers and Acquisitions group at Paul Hastings. His practice focuses on M&A and public company board and special committee advisory work, including hostile takeover and hedge fund activism defense, with a particular emphasis on public company M&A. He has advised on approximately $1.2 trillion in announced deals.

Eric has been repeatedly recognized as a leader in his field by Chambers USA, Legal 500 and IFLR1000; profiled by Insider as one of 29 lawyers “leading the way on billion-dollar deals”; named a Law360 MVP; listed among the “500 Leading Lawyers in America” by Lawdragon; and ranked as a finalist for The American Lawyer’s Corporate Lawyer of the Year award. In 2024, he ranked #5 in MergerLink’s list of top M&A dealmakers for total deal value.

His almost 25 years of experience representing leading multinational corporations, boards of directors and special committees on a wide range of corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs and split-offs, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, business separations and takeover defense, spans diverse industries such as healthcare & life sciences, industrials, food & beverage, media, real estate & hospitality, technology, retail and insurance.

Eric has represented corporate clients including, among others, AbbVie, Amcor, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Constellation Brands, Disney, DreamWorks Animation, Fox Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline, H.J. Heinz, Honeywell, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Kellanova, McDonald’s, Northrop Grumman, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Taubman Centers, The Washington Post Company, Time Warner, Toll Brothers, Wynn Resorts, Xerox, Yahoo! and Zale Corporation. He also has extensive experience in hedge fund activism defense, including against, among others, Carl Icahn, Elliott Management, Greenlight Capital, Relational, Starboard Value and Trian.

Recognitions

  • Chambers Global, Corporate/M&A (International & Cross-Border) – USA (2022-2024)
  • Chambers USA, Corporate/M&A - New York (2015-2024)
  • Law360, M&A MVP (2020)
  • IFLR1000, Mergers and Acquisitions – US (2015-2024)
  • Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Lawyers in America,” (2016-2017, 2020-2024)
  • The Legal 500 (2011-2024)

Education

  • University of Texas at Austin School of Law, J.D. (Highest Honors) 2000 (Associate Editor, The Texas Law Review)
  • Ohio Wesleyan University, B.A. (summa cum laude) 1996

Representations

Industrials

  • Amcor Ltd. in its pending $37 billion merger with Berry Global
  • Carlisle Companies Incorporated in the $2.025 billion sale of Carlisle Interconnect Technologies to Amphenol Corporation
  • Carlisle Companies Incorporated in its $1.575 billion acquisition of Henry Company
  • Amcor Ltd. in its $6.8 billion acquisition of Bemis Co.
  • Polestar Performance AB in its $20 billion combination with Gores Guggenheim Inc.
  • Delphi Technologies PLC in its $3.3 billion sale to BorgWarner Inc.
  • Honeywell in its $90 billion proposal to acquire United Technologies (which was withdrawn) and its $300 million sale of Honeywell Technology Solutions to KBR
  • Investindustrial in its voting agreement and $253 million sale of Knoll Inc. preferred stock to Herman Miller in connection with Herman Miller’s $1.8 billion acquisition of Knoll
  • Northrop Grumman in its $9.2 billion acquisition of Orbital ATK
  • TDR Capital, as controlling stockholder of WillScot Corporation, in the $6.6 billion combination of WillScot and Mobile Mini, Inc.
  • Honeywell in its spin‑off of AdvanSix
  • Jacobs Private Equity in its control-PIPE acquisition (the first of its kind) of XPO Logistics
  • Chevron Corporation in its contested $18 billion acquisition of Unocal

Food & Beverage

  • Kellanova in its pending $35.9 billion sale to Mars
  • Kellogg Company in the separation of its North American cereal business, resulting in two independent public companies, WK Kellogg Co and Kellanova
  • Constellation Brands in connection with its stock declassification
  • Constellation Brands in connection with its cooperation and information sharing agreements with Elliott Management
  • McDonald’s in its sale of Dynamic Yield to Mastercard
  • McDonald’s in its sale of McD Tech Labs to IBM
  • Cambridge Franchise in its business combination with Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc.
  • Anheuser‑Busch InBev in its $123 billion acquisition of SABMiller and the $12 billion sale of SABMiller’s U.S. and global Miller branded businesses to Molson Coors
  • H.J. Heinz and 3G Capital in Heinz’s $60 billion merger with Kraft Foods Group to form The Kraft Heinz Company
  • Mondelez in its engagement and settlement with Trian
  • Starbucks in its $620 million acquisition of Teavana
  • Mondelez in its $30 billion spin‑off of Kraft

Healthcare & Life Sciences

  • AbbVie in its $8.7 billion acquisition of Cerevel Therapeutics
  • Owens & Minor, Inc. in its $1.6 billion acquisition of Apria, Inc.
  • Owens & Minor, Inc. in its pending $1.4 billion acquisition of Rotech Healthcare Holdings
  • AbbVie in its $550 million acquisition of Soliton
  • AbbVie in its $63 billion acquisition of Allergan
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb in its proxy fight with Starboard Value in connection with its $90 billion acquisition of Celgene
  • GlaxoSmithKline in its $12.7 billion joint venture with Pfizer to combine their consumer health businesses
  • Hologic Inc. in its engagement and settlement with Carl Icahn
  • Johnson & Johnson in its $430 million acquisition of Omrix Biopharmaceuticals
  • Biovail Corporation in its financing in connection with its $3.3 billion merger‑of‑equals with Valeant Pharmaceuticals and its $200 million acquisition of the worldwide tetrabenazine business of Cambridge Labs

Media/Sports

  • Fox Corporation in the proposed combination of Fox and News Corp. (which proposal was withdrawn)
  • Tribune Publishing in its cooperation agreement with Alden Global Capital
  • Centerview Partners and Lazard in their capacities as financial advisors to the special committee of CBS Corporation in connection with its $48 billion combination with Viacom Inc.
  • Sonic Financial Corporation in its $1 billion take-private acquisition of Speedway Motorsports, Inc.
  • Disney in its $66 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox
  • Time Warner on a number of M&A transactions, including its $109 billion sale to AT&T, the unsolicited $80 billion proposal from 21st Century Fox to acquire Time Warner (which was withdrawn) and its $735 million acquisition of 100% of truTV
  • The Strategic Review Committee of the Board of Directors of Yahoo! in the $4.5 billion acquisition of Yahoo!’s operating business by Verizon
  • DreamWorks Animation in its $4.1 billion sale to Comcast, its acquisition of Classic Media and the formation of the Oriental DreamWorks partnership with China Media Capital and Shanghai Media Group
  • Cable ONE in its $735 million acquisition of NewWave Communications
  • The Washington Post Company in the $250 million sale of The Washington Post newspaper to Jeff Bezos
  • Time Inc. in the sale of its Parenting Group, Time4 Media and Grupo Expansión businesses, and in its acquisition of QSP
  • The Board of Directors of MCI in connection with the contested $8.5 billion acquisition of MCI by Verizon
  • Sprint in its $35 billion merger with Nextel
  • Time Warner in its spin‑offs of Time Inc., AOL and Time Warner Cable
  • Graham Holdings in its spin‑off of Cable ONE and its $1.1 billion split‑off of WPLG to Berkshire Hathaway
  • Turner Broadcasting in its $1.5 billion split‑off of the Atlanta Braves to Liberty Media

Real Estate & Hospitality

  • The Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Safehold Inc. in connection with Safehold’s strategic merger with its controlling shareholder iStar Inc. and related spinoff of iStar assets into a new publicly traded company
  • Wynn Resorts in its sales of its Michigan iGaming Operations to Caesars Entertainment and its Mobile Sports Wagering Licenses in New York to PENN Entertainment
  • Wynn Resorts in its $1.7 billion sale of the land and real estate assets of Encore Boston Harbor to Realty Income
  • Wynn Resorts in its proposed $3.2 billion combination of its Wynn Interactive business with Austerlitz Acquisition Corporation
  • TDR Capital in its offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Target Hospitality Corp. not owned by TDR or its affiliates
  • Wynn Resorts in its acquisition of Betbull
  • Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. in its PIPE investment from L Catterton as part of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.’s multi-tranche financing for aggregate proceeds of $2.4 billion
  • The Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Taubman Centers, Inc. in Taubman’s $9.8 billion merger and joint venture with Simon Property Group
  • Wynn Resorts in its engagement and settlement agreement with shareholder Elaine Wynn
  • The transaction committee of the board of directors of Norwegian Cruise Line in the $3.0 billion acquisition of Prestige Cruises International by Norwegian
  • Toll Brothers in its $1.6 billion acquisition of the home building business of Shapell Industries

Technology

  • Pioneer Merger Corp. in its proposed $2.2 billion combination with Acorns Grow Incorporated
  • Sapient in its $3.7 billion acquisition by Publicis
  • IBM in a number of public and private transactions with an aggregate value of approximately $5.0 billion, including its acquisitions of SoftLayer Technologies, Ascential and Micromuse and the sale of its worldwide customer care business process outsourcing services business to SYNNEX, as well as in the formation of Open Invention Network
  • Xerox in its spin‑off of Conduent

Retail

  • Express, Inc. in its strategic partnership with WHP Global and in its agreement with WHP to acquire Bonobos, Inc. from Walmart
  • Zale Corporation in its $1.5 billion sale to Signet Jewelers and its related successful proxy fight with TIG Advisors, and in its PIPE financing with Golden Gate Capital

Insurance

  • Montpelier Re Holdings in its $1.8 billion acquisition by Endurance Specialty Holdings
  • Flagstone Reinsurance in its $625 million sale to Validus

Practice Areas

Mergers and Acquisitions


Languages

English


Admissions

New York Bar


Education

The University of Texas School of Law, J.D. 2000

Ohio Wesleyan University, B.A. 1996