IBM $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat

Overview:

• IBM has completed its $34 billion acquisition of open-source software company Red Hat. 
• The acquisition is IBM's largest ever and among the largest in tech history. 
• Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Lazard acted as financial advisers to IBM on the merger, and Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim Partners advised Red Hat
• IBM made a $20 billion notes offering in May 2019 to help finance the acquisition. 
• Having secured the proceeds from the offering, IBM terminated earlier bridge loans from JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.   
• The underwriters on the notes offering included JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and BofA Merrill Lynch. 
• The transaction was first announced in October 2018. 

Kurt Stumpo - US Editor