Jeff Wysong

JEFF WYSONG advises clients on a wide variety of public and private merger and acquisition transactions, equity investments, joint ventures, capital markets transactions, and corporate governance matters. Jeff works across a variety of industry sectors, including technology, telecom, healthcare, aviation, industrial technology, distribution, automotive, packaging, mining, industrial, and services businesses.

Jeff’s clients include public companies, private equity and investment funds, private equity platform companies, investors, boards of directors, and investment sponsors. His transactional experience spans public and private M&A, leveraged buyouts, divestitures, roll-ups, carve-outs, take-privates, GP-led secondaries, strategic venture capital investments, joint ventures, registered and unregistered equity offerings, and minority investments. Jeff also regularly advises public companies on a broad range of disclosure, corporate governance, shareholder, and SEC and exchange compliance matters.

Additionally, Jeff has significant experience in transactions involving special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), and he represents SPAC sponsors, as well as target companies and their investors. His experience covers the entire SPAC lifecycle, including SPAC initial public offerings (IPOs), common and preferred equity investments transactions (PIPEs), De-SPAC transactions, and post-closing public company counseling.

Prior to joining Sidley, Jeff was a graduate Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) Fellow at the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship. He graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and was elected to the Order of the Coif. During law school, Jeff and his partner won the national ABA Negotiation Competition. He graduated magna cum laude from Hillsdale College with a B.A. degree in history.

Public Company Transactions

• Avid Technology (Nasdaq: AVID) in its US$1.4 billion all-cash sale to STG.
• Stryker (NYSE: SYK) in its US$4.9 billion all-cash tender offer acquisition of Inari Medical (Nasdaq: NARI).
• Western Union (NYSE: WU) in its agreement for a US$500 million acquisition of International Money Express (Nasdaq: IMXI).
• Multiple unpublished engagements advising public company boards of directors in respect of unsolicited offers and stockholder negotiations.
• Bridger Aerospace (Nasdaq: BAER) in at-the-market and registered direct common stock offerings.
• Multiple PIPE offerings, including preferred and common equity, in connection with de-SPAC transactions.

Private Company Transactions

• Waltz Health in its merger with EVERSANA.
• Equity Group Investments (EGI) in its sale of a minority ownership interest in Ardent Health Partners to Pure Health.
• Platform acquisition, numerous add-ons and GP-led secondary for BCM One, a portfolio company of Thompson Street Capital Partners.
• Multiple other platform and add-on acquisitions and divestitures for financial sponsors and public and privately owned strategic buyers.
• Multiple venture capital investments for strategic clients, such as United Airlines and AptarGroup, including preferred investments and equity earnouts tied to commercial agreements.

SPACs

• Bridger Aerospace (Nasdaq: BAER), a leading independent provider of aerial firefighting services, in its US$869 million business combination with Jack Creek Investment Corp.
• Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp. III in its US$748 million business combination with NRC Group Holdings (NYSE: NRCG), an environmental, compliance and waste management services company and a portfolio company of J.F. Lehman & Company, including preferred and common PIPE proceeds of approximately US$85 million.
• Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp. IV in its US$2.4 billion business combination with Canoo Holdings (Nasdaq: GOEV), an electric vehicle manufacturer, including a common equity PIPE of over US$300 million.
• Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. V in its agreement to enter into a US$3.3 billion business combination with Plus, a provider of self-driving technologies.
• Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. VI in its US$800 million business combination with Namib Minerals (Nasdaq: NAMM), a gold producer in Zimbabwe.
• Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. VII in its agreement to enter into a US$1.1 billion business combination with ONE Nuclear, an independent developer of large-scale energy solutions.
• Global Technology Acquisition Corp. I in its agreement to enter into a US$434 million business combination with Tyfon Culture Holdings, a Chinese art trading platform.
• Hennessy Capital in connection with multiple SPAC IPOs.