Banking Recap

This deal involves First Advantage Corp (ticker FA), a technology-sector company, as the acquirer, with Sterling Check Corp as the target. The transaction is an M&A deal structured as a cash-and-stock acquisition, and its disclosed value is $2,200,000,000.

Deal value

The facts are sourced from an 8-K filing with the SEC via EDGAR, published February 29, 2024. The deal's status is pending regulatory, indicating it had not yet closed as of that filing.

This deal has an unusually large advisory roster on the acquirer side. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is named as lead financial advisor to First Advantage. In addition, the source material states that BofA Securities, Inc., Barclays Bank PLC, BMO Capital Markets Corp., Jefferies Finance LLC, and RBC Capital Markets all also served as financial advisors to First Advantage, without individual lead designations beyond J.P. Morgan's. On the target side, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. acted as financial advisors to Sterling, per the source sentence naming both firms together, with no lead designation specified for either.

Legal counsel is also disclosed for both sides: Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP served as Sterling's (the target's) legal counsel in the transaction, while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP served as First Advantage's (the acquirer's) legal counsel.

Beyond identifying the transaction as a cash-and-stock acquisition valued at $2,200,000,000, the facts block does not specify the exact mix of cash versus stock consideration, the per-share price, or any other structural terms.

Several facts are not disclosed in the available record. The precise cash/stock consideration split is not specified. No expected closing date is given. The record also does not indicate whether any of the five non-lead financial advisors to First Advantage played differentiated roles (e.g., financing versus advisory) beyond the general "financial advisor" designation.