The international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP represented Axel Springer SE on the sale of its entire 50.1 percent shareholding in runtastic GmbH, an Austrian internet company founded in 2009. Concurrently, the remaining investors, including the founders and management team of runtastic, also sold their participations to the adidas group, which now holds 100 percent of all shares of runtastic. The entire transaction was concluded at a EUR 220 million enterprise value basis.
Runtastic GmbH was founded in Pasching, Austria, in 2009. The company offers a combination of mobile sports apps (e.g., for running, cycling, winter sports), related hardware, and a web portal.
Axel Springer, via Axel Springer Digital Ventures, had originally acquired its 50.1 percent stake in runtastic in October 2013 - then at a valuation of EUR 22 million. With over 140 million app downloads and approximately 70 million registered users, runtastic is one of the world’s leading providers of mobile sports apps.
Advisor to Axel Springer SE: Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP
Norbert Rieger (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Andrea Eggenstein (Corporate/M&A, Frankfurt, joint lead), Rolf Füger (Tax, Munich), Matthias Schell (Tax, Munich), Alexander Rinne (Antitrust, Munich), Leopold Riedl (Corporate/M&A, Frankfurt), Nina Hornemann (Corporate/M&A, Frankfurt), Moritz Lichtenegger (Antitrust, Munich)
Inhouse (Axel Springer): Marcus Wandrey (lead, Senior Counsel Corporate and M&A), Harck-Oluf Nissen (Head of M&A Legal), Cendy Micksch (Tax)
About Milbank
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a leading international law firm founded in 1866 in New York City. Today Milbank has offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, São Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, DC and is present in all major financial and economic centers of the world. Milbank focuses its worldwide legal services in the areas of finance, transactions and litigation.
The first European office was opened in 1979 in London, followed by Frankfurt in 2001 and Munich in 2004. Due to the close cooperation of the German offices with the finance, corporate, cartel and tax lawyers practicing in other Milbank offices, in particular London and New York, Milbank Germany is in a position to provide fully integrated legal advice on the highest level in all these core areas pursuant to German, English and US law.
