Middle East car booking app Careem and Uber have both turned to West Coast tech stalwarts for counsel on their merger.
Uber was represented by Morrison & Foerster in its $3.1 billion acquisition of Careem, represented by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
MoFo corporate partners Eric McCrath and Lauren Bellerjeau led Uber’s side. MoFo employment partner Eric Tate, privacy partner Julie O’ Neill, tax partner Anthony Carbone, and IP partner Tessa Schwartz, too, worked on the deal.
In 2017, too, MoFo defended Uber in their trade secrets’ lawsuit over self-driving technology against Google’s Waymo, and was sole counsel to Japan’s SoftBank during their multi-billion dollar investment in Uber in 2018.
Careem’s side was led by Wilson Sonsini corporate partners Mark Holloway and Kathy Ku. A source close to the deal confirmed that Careem shareholder Saudi Telecoms Company (STC) was advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer but Freshfields declined comment.
With the $3.1 billion deal expected to close in Q1 of next year, subject to regulatory approvals, Careem will then become a wholly owned subsidiary of Uber. According to a statement provided by Uber, the total value consists of $1.7 billion in convertible notes and $1.4 billion in cash.