Paul Thorpe

Paul is a partner in the Corporate team and advises strategic corporates, VC and PE funds, investors and founders on M&A processes in the technology and life sciences sectors. 

Paul is dual-qualified in England and Wales and California, and has extensive experience across a broad range of transactions, providing commercial advice informed by over 10 years of M&A advisory experience.  Recent work includes advising Zound Industries on its acquisition of Marshall Amplification, Eurofins Scientific on the sale of its sale of its Digital Testing business, and Cognism on its acquisition of the sales prospecting provider, Kaspr.  Paul has also advised a large number of FTSE 350, NYSE and NASDAQ clients on transformational M&A activity, including Ultra Electronics in relation to its acquisition by Cobham, OneSavings Bank in relation to its acquisition of Charter Court, and Shire Pharmaceuticals in relation to its acquisition by Takeda.

Paul's practice covers transactions in the fintech, gaming, pharma, retail and industrial sectors, as well as in relation to cross-sectoral disruptive technologies (including AI and blockchain).

Recent transactions include advising:

• Zound Industries on its acquisition of Marshall Amplification to form Marshall Group.
• Behaviour Interactive on its acquisition of SockMonkey Studios.
• TodayTix Group on its acquisition of Secret Cinema.
• Eurofins in relation to the sale of its Digital Testing business (€220 million).
• Cognism on its acquisition of sales prospecting provider Kaspr.
• Walmart in relation to its sale of ASDA to a consortium comprising the Issa brothers and TDR Capital (£6.8bn).*
• NewLight in relation to its sale of Hyperoptic to funds managed by KKR (£500m).*
• Shire in relation to its takeover by Takeda (£46bn).*
• Pollen Street Capital in relation to the sale of Target Group to Tech Mahindra (£112m).*
• CRH in relation to its sale of its European distribution business to funds managed by Blackstone (€1.64bn).*
• Countrywide in relation to its takeover by Connells (£134m).*
• OneSavings Bank in relation to its acquisition of Charter Court (£800m).*
• GKN in relation to its hostile takeover by Melrose Industries (£8.1bn).*
• Unilever in relation a partial tender offer in Unilever Nigeria (€192m).*
• Platform Speciality Products in relation to its acquisition of Alent ($2.1bn).*
• Rolls-Royce on an international joint venture with Safran.*

*Matter handled prior to joining Taylor Wessing.