Sidley Advises Verdane in Its Partnership With Smartbox

Sidley represented Verdane, a European investment firm, in its agreement to partner with Smartbox Assistive Technology Group (Smartbox). Majority shares were previously held by the CareTech Group (CareTech), who will continue to be a minority shareholder in Smartbox. Three Hills will invest alongside Verdane and CareTech.

Smartbox is a market-leading provider of augmentative and alternative communication technology, designed to support communication, connection, and independence for people with speech and language disabilities.

Verdane, which has offices in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the UK, and Germany, will become the majority shareholder in the business through the partnership.

The cross-practice Sidley team included professionals across Sidley’s London, New York, Munich, Brussels, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Century City, and Dallas offices. Private Equity partners Adam Runcorn and Brien Wassner led the team, which included Andrew Cebula, Jessica Edwards, Abdullah Shah, and trainee solicitors Will Barnes and Coral Alexander (Private Equity); James Crooks, Chris Devine, and Darren Chak (Global Finance); Jason Menzies and Ryan Power (Tax); Catherine Starks, Gaby Feliciani, and Mariya Denisenko (Healthcare); Marie Manley, Torrey Cope, Julea Lipiz, and Victoria Kerr (Food, Drug and Medical Device); Fatima Butt and Sarah Braun (M&A); Patrick Harrison, Miriam Carroll Silvestri, Dominique Vletter, and Alex Harper (Antitrust and Competition); Clive Gringras, Jonathan Lafferty, Daniel Wagner, and law clerk Chelsey Miao (Commercial Litigation and Disputes); William Long, Sasha Hondagneu-Messner, and Lauren Cuyvers (Privacy and Cybersecurity); Peter McCorkell, Alex Down, and trainee solicitor Natalie Tan (Labor, Employment and Immigration); Eric Wolf and Amanda Casanueva (Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation); Chris Lock, Sven De Knop, and Ben Vallimarescu (Global Arbitration, Trade and Advocacy); Samantha Cumming (Securities Enforcement and Regulatory); and Dusan Clark and IP transactions specialist Raza Siddiqui (Tech Transactions).