LONDON, 1 August 2007 – International law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP has advised AstraZeneca on a global IT infrastructure outsourcing deal with IBM worth $1.4 billion. The new outsourcing contract extends AstraZeneca’s existing relationship with IBM, covering more countries and a wider range of services and putting in place an innovative contractual framework.
The new contract governs the provision of IT infrastructure services to AstraZeneca’s global business, and is centred around three delivery hubs in the United Kingdom, Sweden and the United States of America. The services to be provided by IBM include infrastructure and application server hosting, storage, a global service desk, e-mail and collaboration services and client management. In all, the new outsourcing arrangements will cover AstraZeneca’s operations in 60 countries worldwide.
The Milbank team was led by London-based partner Sean Keaton and associate Joel Harrison, who were supported by New York partner Steve Nordahl and associate Douglas Barnes, with employment law advice from senior associate Katherine Soanes and associate Dominic Ward. Mannheimer Swartling partner Magnus Wallander provided Swedish law advice on the transaction.
The Milbank team worked in close partnership with a team from the AstraZeneca in-house legal department, led by Legal Counsel Lucy Allison and with the AstraZeneca commercial team led by Mark Turner and James Simmonds. The Milbank and AstraZeneca teams together delivered a package of ground-breaking terms and conditions to support the evolving needs of AstraZeneca.
Milbank partner Sean Keaton said of the transaction, “The unique needs of AstraZeneca required an agile and truly global service delivery, which in turn called for a novel approach to the key commercial aspects of the transaction. This transaction involved a number of commercial arrangements which to our knowledge have never before been adopted in deals of this kind. That these arrangements could be put in place in a contractual framework that meets the requirements of both parties is a credit to AstraZeneca and also to the ability of IBM to respond to its client’s needs.”He also said of the appointment to advise AstraZeneca, “It has been a great pleasure working with AstraZeneca on this transaction and we are delighted that we were trusted to advise on such a key contract. We have been very impressed by the professional way that this transaction was managed by AstraZeneca’s legal department and in turn we hope that our performance has further strengthened the relationship between our two organisations.”AstraZeneca’s Assistant General Counsel Liam McIlveen said, “The successful collaboration between Milbank and the in-house legal team was key to the success of this transaction. We combined Milbank’s market-leading experience and expertise with the in-house team’s thorough knowledge of the AstraZeneca business to deliver a truly creative and innovative contract. The teams worked seamlessly together. We have been extremely pleased with Milbank’s contribution and are very proud of the combined legal team’s work on this pivotal contract for AstraZeneca.”
About Milbank and AstraZeneca
Milbank has a long-standing relationship with AstraZeneca. Earlier this year, New York-based IP litigation partner Errol Taylor secured a major victory for the company in the second wave of trials involving its formulation patents for Prilosec®, in which the court both upheld the validity of AstraZeneca’s patents and found them infringed by two drug manufacturers.
About Milbank
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a preeminent global law firm that for more than 140 years has provided innovative legal solutions in many of the world’s largest, most complex, “first-ever” corporate transactions and litigation. Our transactional expertise includes capital markets, corporate finance, project finance, acquisition finance and other major fields of law practice. Milbank litigation teams resolve disputes involving mergers and acquisitions, proxy battles, financings and securities offerings, intellectual property, white collar crime, and corporate restructurings, among others. Our clients range from prominent multinational financial, industrial and commercial enterprises to governments, institutions and individuals. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, DC.
Milbank’s Strategic Sourcing and Technology Group is widely recognised as a global leader in IT and business process outsourcing transactions. Since 1986, we have represented clients in more than 300 significant outsourcing and technology projects in over 90 countries, with a combined deal value well in excess of $100 billion. Industry publications consistently rank the Group in the #1 category in both London and New York, and several of our lawyers are individually recognised as leaders in their field.
Contact
Sean Keaton
T: +44-(0)-207-615-3078
SKeaton@milbank.com