Milbank LLP advised Axel Springer on the sale of its majority stake in finanzen.net, one of Germany's leading finance portals. The shares in finanzen.net were acquired by Inflexion together with the founders of finanzen.net, Peter Schille and Jens Ohr. The transaction is still subject to merger and investment control clearances.
finanzen.net was founded in 2000 by Jens Ohr and Peter Schille under the umbrella of Smarthouse Media GmbH. In 2010, it was spun off into an independent company, finanzen.net GmbH, in which Axel Springer holds a majority stake alongside the founders. The finanzen.net group also includes the neo-broker finanzen.net ZERO and the real-time stock market software for investors, TraderFox.
Axel Springer is an international media and technology company. Its brands include renowned media such as BILD, WELT, Business Insider and POLITICO, as well as leading classifieds platforms such as the Stepstone Group and the AVIV Group.
Inflexion is a European mid-market investor that partners with management teams of high-growth companies to accelerate sustainable growth.
The Milbank team advised Axel Springer, in particular, on corporate, tax and antitrust aspects of the transaction. The M&A side of the team included Special Counsel Andrea Eggenstein (lead, corporate), Norbert Rieger (partner, corporate) and Lucas Stumpf (associate, corporate). Rolf Füger (partner, tax law) and Arne Hammerich (associate, tax law) advised on tax law aspects, and Moritz Lichtenegger (special counsel, competition law) and Jana-Sophie Enders (associate, competition law) on competition law aspects. The team also included partner Thomas Ingenhoven (finance) as well as special counsel Gerrit Merkel (finance) and associate Thomas Vogl (corporate).
Axel Springer’s legal team was headed by Ansgar Schönborn (Head of M&A Legal and Corporate Law) and also comprised Jens Riedel (Senior Legal Counsel Corporate and M&A) and Lili Birnbach (Legal Counsel Corporate and M&A), as well as on the tax side by Cendy Micksch (Head of M&A Tax).
The founders of finanzen.net were represented by Taylor Wessing. The founders of TraderFox were represented by Görg.
