Private Equity

Weil advised Aleph Capital and Crestview Partners in connection with their acquisition of Company 3 / Method and entry into a definitive agreement to acquire Framestore. Company 3 / Method is a provider of post-production, color grading and location services for feature films, commercials, music videos and television, headquartered in Los Angeles and New York. Framestore is a provider of animation, VFX and other creative services headquartered in London with creative studios in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Montréal and Mumbai. The Company 3 / Method acquisition closed on November 4, 2020 and the Framestore acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Aleph Capital is a long-term-oriented investment firm headquartered in London and founded by Hugues Lepic, who previously led the European private equity investing business of Goldman Sachs. Crestview Partners is a New York-based private equity firm focused on the middle market that manages funds with over $9 billion of aggregate capital commitments.

The Weil U.K. and U.S. Corporate team that advised Aleph Capital and Crestview Partners was led by Private Equity partners Lewis Blakey and Matt Stewart and included Private Equity associates James Evelegh, Rebecca Zhang and Travis Michaud. The team also included Tax partner Jonathan Macke; Tax associate Kerri Gallagher (Not Yet Admitted in Washington, D.C.); Executive Compensation & Benefits Head Paul Wessel; Executive Compensation & Benefits associates Amanda Rosenblum and Radhika Tahiliani; Banking & Finance partner Benton Lewis; Banking & Finance associate Theodore Batis; Technology & IP Transactions partner Charan Sandhu; Technology & IP Transactions/Privacy associates Robert Brown, Megan Briskman, Rami Sherman and Caleb Small; Environmental Head Annemargaret Connolly; Regulatory Transactions associate Ariel Fliman; Antitrust counsel Vadim Brusser; Employment Litigation associate Lauren Richards; and White Collar Defense, Regulatory and Investigations counsel Timothy Welch.