We met the Appex team around the time we were starting our M&A practice and they were beginning their mobile application rollup strategy. The relationship had an inauspicious beginning. We gelled immediately with Appex’s leadership. That wasn’t the issue. Instead, it was something outside our control. The first transaction we worked on for Appex involved protracted negotiations with intransigent seller counsel and ultimately a business that declined sharply before closing so that Appex walked away. Despite this, a few months later they contacted us to work on their next acquisition. Upon receiving this pleasant surprise, we got to work and the relationship has blossomed since.

Their acquisitions have varied in size and complexity. Some have required creative structuring. Some have been more straightforward. Several have been international transactions with unique tax situations that we’ve navigated with the assistance of our growing partner network. We also ensure that each successive acquisition fits into the larger corporate structure correctly. There was a period when several transactions in a row fell through for one reason or another, yet we continued to work on each at the point at which it was time for negotiations on the LOI. We support our clients through thick and thin, and this is a fine example. We also work within the structure of Appex having separate legal counsel for different areas. We are dedicated M&A counsel even for clients who work with much larger firms for their other legal needs.

Since we have facilitated multiple acquisitions for Appex, we have special baseline deal terms and seller representations that are particularly important both to how Appex wants to conduct its business and the specifics of what matters most in a mobile application business. We know what matters most in each type of digital business, and our agreements reflect this knowledge. This repetition also streamlines both legal diligence and negotiating transaction documents. When we work with a client repeatedly, we learn their preferences and know which deal terms are negotiable and which aren’t. From the outside it may seem like these preferences would always be the same, but this is rarely the case. We take pride in offering our clients this level of customization and the education and discussion necessary to set these preferences in the first instance.

We have become an integral part of the Appex deal team and continue to provide support as they grow and evolve. As Fraser describes the relationship: