Michael Frese

Associate, Antitrust at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Michael J. Frese represents companies in several investigations in Europe and abroad, as well as in several proceedings before the EU courts. He also has worked on numerous multijurisdictional merger filings. Mr. Frese has advised on a range of commercial practices, including most-favored nation requirements, life-cycle management, cross-licensing, patent settlements, patent-monetization, rebates and joint marketing. In recognition of his work, he has been named to Who’s Who Legal: Competition.

Representative behavioral matters include, among others:

• ABB in its successful appeal before the European Court of Justice against the European Commission’s (EC) power cable cartel decision that had been confirmed by the General Court;
• GE Aviation, as member of the CFM International joint venture, in the successful resolution of a complaint made to the EC accusing CFM of abuse of dominance, putting an end to a preliminary investigation by the EC into alleged anticompetitive contracts between airlines and CFM;
• Generics (UK) Limited in relation to the EC’s administrative proceeding alleging that the company’s pharmaceutical patent settlement with Lundbeck infringed Article 101 TFEU; and ZeniMax in settling the EC’s video games investigation.

Representative merger control matters include, among others:
Amadeus IT Group, S.A. (Spain) in its US$1.5 billion acquisition of TravelClick, Inc. from Thoma Bravo, LLC;

• Cisco Systems, Inc. on the antitrust aspects of the US$600 million sale of its connected devices unit to Technicolor SA (France);
• CME Group Inc. in its joint venture with IHS Markit Ltd. (United Kingdom) to combine their post-trade services;
• DSV Panalpina A/S (Denmark) in its US$4.2 billion acquisition of the Global Integrated Logistics business of Agility Public Warehousing Company K.S.C.P. (Kuwait);IAC in its US$500 million acquisition of Care.com, Inc.;
• Intel Corporation in the sale of Wind River Systems, Inc. to TPG Capital, L.P.;
• PayPal Holdings, Inc. in its US$4 billion acquisition of Honey Science Corporation;
• Red Hat, Inc. in its US$34 billion acquisition by International Business Machines Corporation;Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. in its US$1 billion acquisition of a 66.7% stake in Silversea Cruises, Ltd.;
• Viagogo Entertainment Inc in its US$4.05 billion acquisition of StubHub, Inc. from eBay Inc.; and Zuber and Mohsin Issa, owners of EG Group (United Kingdom),
• TDR Capital LLP (United Kingdom) in their acquisition of a majority stake in ASDA Group Limited (United Kingdom) from Walmart Inc.

Prior to joining Skadden, Mr. Frese lectured in EU competition law, EU law and administrative law at the University of Amsterdam. He regularly publishes articles in professional and academic journals.