Biography
David Gail is a partner in Weil’s Private Equity practice and is based in Dallas. David advises both public companies and private equity sponsors in a wide variety of transactions, including leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, restructurings, financings and dispositions. David also has advised clients on general corporate and commercial matters, including securities laws, corporate governance issues and other strategic considerations.
Experience
Private Equity M&A
- Lindsay Goldberg
- in its acquisition of WoodSpring Hotels and WoodSpring Hotels in the sale of its franchise business to Choice Hotels International and corporate-owned hotels to an affiliate of Brookfield
- as a major shareholder of Crane Currency, Inc., in Crane’s sale to Crane & Co. Inc.
- in its acquisition of Big Ass Solutions
- in its formation of Bedrock Industries, Bedrock’s acquisition of Stelco Inc. (f/k/a US Steel Canada), and the subsequent IPO of Stelco
- in its formation of Golden West Packaging Group LLC and Golden West Packaging Group LLC in its acquisitions of Heritage Solutions, Inc., Capital Corrugated, Inc., PackageOne, Inc., Packaging Innovators Corporation and their co-owned captive sheet feeder, Cal Sheets, LLC
- in its recapitalization and sale of Dealer Tire, LLC
- as a major shareholder of Aviv REIT, Inc., in Aviv’s $3 billion merger with Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc.
- in its tank terminals joint venture with Odfjell SE
- in its sale of Ambulatory Services of America to US Renal Care
- PSG
- in its investment in Packback Inc.
- and Sign In Solutions Inc. in its acquisition of SmartSpace Software plc
- in its acquisition of Loopback, LLC.
- in its acquisition of Yottaa, Inc.
- in its acquisition of Fidelity Payment Services, Inc.
- in its investment in Stylitics Inc.
- in its acquisition of mPulse Mobile, Inc.
- and mPulse Mobile, Inc. in its acquisition of HealthCrowd
- and Formstack, LLC in Formstack’s receipt of $425 million in new investments, in a transaction led by Silversmith Capital Partners and PSG
- and INE in INE’s acquisition of the assets of Pentester Academy
- as principal stockholder, together with Lumaverse, in the recapitalization of Lumaverse Technologies by L Squared Capital Partners
- in its acquisition of Sign In App Ltd.
- in its acquisition of Vault Verify LLC
- in its formation of Backlight Solutions Holdings LP and Backlight's acquisitions of Celtx Inc., ftrack AB, iconik Media AB, Wildmoka SAS and Zype Inc.
- in its investment in Lusha Systems LTD
- in its acquisition of a majority interest in NoFraud LLC
- in its acquisition, together with Blue Star Innovation Partners, of PatientNOW
- in its acquisition of Pixel Labs, LLC (n/k/a Assembly) and Assembly in a significant recapitalization led by Advent International and its acquisition of Pacvue Corporation
- in its acquisition of Next Glass, Inc.
- in its sale of a majority stake in Burning Glass Technologies
- in its acquisition of ThreatConnect, Inc. and ThreatConnect in its acquisition of Nehemiah Security LLP
- in its acquisition of ShootProof, LLC and ShootProof, LLC in its acquisition of Collage.com, Inc. and formation with Collage.com of Foreground
- in its investment of Pineapple Payments LLC and Pineapple Payments LLC in its acquisition of Payline Data Services LLC and its sale to Fiserv, Inc.
- in its acquisition of SignUp Genius
- in its formation of Government Brands Holdings, and the acquisitions of Sturgis Web Services Corporation, nCourt, LLC, Value Payments Systems, LLC and eGovernment Solutions, LLC
- in its formation of Data Brands Holdings, and the acquisition of Formstack, LLC and WebMerge, LLC
- in its recapitalization of BlueStar Sports (n/k/a Stack Sports) and associated roll-up transactions, together with the sale of Blue Star Sports to Genstar Capital
- in its acquisition of YourCause, YourCause in its acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Good Done Great and its sale to Blackbaud, Inc.
- in its acquisition of AbacusNext and AbacusNext’s sale to Thomas H. Lee Partners
- Providence Equity Partners in its acquisition of a majority stake in 365 Retail Markets, LLC
- Kainos Capital
- and Evriholder Products, LLC in Evriholder Products’ acquisitions of Axe Holdings, LLC and Home Sweet Home Holdings, Inc.
- and JTM Foods in JTM Foods’ sale to Tenex Capital Management
- in its acquisition of Olde Thompson, LLC and Olde Thompson in its acquisition of Gel Spice Company Inc. and $950 million sale to Olam Food Ingredients (a subsidiary of Olam International Limited)
- in its acquisition of Country Fresh LLC and Country Fresh’s acquisitions of Sun Rich Fresh Foods and Tiffany Gate
- in its sale of Trilliant Food and Nutrition, LLC to Blackstone
- in its acquisition and disposition of Fempro
- in its acquisition of Bonewerks CulinArte‘
- in its combination of its portfolio companies: Kettle Cuisine, Bonewerks CulinArte' and Savory Creations, into one business operating as Kettle Cuisine; and Kettle Cuisine in its acquisition of NORPAC Foods, Inc.
- in its acquisition and subsequent sale of good2grow LLC
- TA Associates
- in its acquisitions of Global Software and insightsoftware.com
- in its acquisition of Professional Datasolutions and associated roll-up transactions, together with the sale of Professional Datasolutions to Genstar Capital
- Aimbridge Hospitality
- in its acquisition of ONE Lodging’s US assets
- in its acquisition of TMI Hospitality
- in its sale to Advent International
- ORIX Capital Partners
- in its acquisition of Peak Utility Services Group, Inc.
- in its acquisition of NTI Connect
- in the sale by its portfolio company Hoffman Southwest Corporation of all of Hoffman's Roto-Rooter franchise operations to Roto-Rooter Services Company
- Advent International and its portfolio companies in its transactions involving TrueCoach, ZingFit LLC, Mariana Tek Corporation, BrandBot LLC and Triib, Inc.
- Berkshire Partners in its joint acquisition with New Balance of Adidas’ Rockport unit
- Blue Star Innovation Partners, along with institutional co-investors, in its acquisition of eMinor Inc.
- Lee Equity Partners in its sale of Cadent Technology, Inc.
- Susquehanna Growth Equity in its acquisition of a majority stake in MediSpend
- Payrix (a portfolio company of PSG and Blue Star Innovation Partners) in its sale to FIS (f/k/a Fidelity National Information Services)
- Topgolf International, Inc. (a portfolio company of Providence Equity Partners, Dundon Capital Partners and WestRiver Group) in its $2.5 billion merger of equals with Callaway Golf Company
- JPMorgan Chase in connection with the bulk sale of approximately 50% of the portfolio companies held by the investment funds managed by One Equity Partners to an investor group led by Lexington Partners and AlpInvest Partners, and the related spin-out of One Equity Partners into an independent private equity firm
- Apollo Global Management in connection with the contribution by AP Alternative Assets of substantially all of its assets to Athene Holding in exchange for equity of Athene Holding
- Graycliff Partners in its acquisition of a majority stake in Landmark Structures
Public Company M&A
- AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines, in its $18 billion merger with US Airways Group, Inc.
- Arcosa, Inc. in its $375 million acquisition of StonePoint Ultimate Holding
- General Electric Capital Corporation in the sale of its rail car leasing and repair business to Wells Fargo and Marmon Group
- General Electric Company in its acquisition of Lineage Power
- General Growth Properties, Inc.
- in its $8 billion recapitalization by affiliates of Brookfield and Pershing Square
- in its spinoff of The Howard Hughes Corporation
- in its spinoff of Rouse Properties, Inc.
- Approach Resources Inc. in its recapitalization transaction with affiliates of the Wilks Brothers
David was named “Dealmaker: Attorney of the Year” at D CEO Magazine's 2022 Mergers & Acquisitions Awards. He is recognized as an “Up & Coming” lawyer for Corporate/M&A in Texas by Chambers USA 2021-2023, where clients note he is “a great lawyer” who is “very smart and commercial.” David is also recognized as a “Highly Regarded” lawyer for M&A in Texas by IFLR1000 2022. David is recognized as a “Best Lawyer” for Mergers & Acquisitions Law in Dallas by Best Lawyers in America* 2024. He was named among D Magazine’ s Best Lawyers in Dallas for Private Equity 2019, 2021-2023, and The M&A Advisor’s 2019 Emerging Leaders. David was also named a 2017 “Lawyers 2022, 2021 on the Rise” award honoree by Texas Lawyer. He was recognized as a “Rising Star” in Texas for Corporate M&A by Super Lawyers** 2016-2020. Prior to joining Weil, David was the Colet Fellow at St. Paul’s School in London, England. David is active in national politics and served on President Barack Obama’s National Finance Committee during the 2008 and 2012 election cycles. He also serves as a tournament chair for Weil’s “Dodge for a Cause” charity dodgeball tournament held at the American Airlines Center benefitting Vogel Alcove.
* Best Lawyers (in America) is by Levine Leichtman Capital Partners
** Super Lawyers recognition is a Thomson Reuters service