Settlement in Sun Capital and Polycom Case

In May 2012, Sun Capital agreed to acquire Polycom’s SpectraLink business for $110 million. SpectraLink provided short-range wireless communication systems for large retailers, such as Home Depot and Lowe’s, and hospitals. After the transaction, Sun Capital claimed that Polycom had violated the terms of the purchase agreement by, among other things, failing to disclose that some of SpectraLink’s largest customers had notified Polycom they were going to discontinue their use of SpectraLink products.

Compass Lexecon was retained by John Hartmann of Kirkland & Ellis to work on behalf of Sun Capital in the matter, and Dan Fischel submitted an expert report quantifying the effect of losing various customers on SpectraLink’s value.

Following the submission of Professor Fischel’s report, Polycom agreed to dramatically reduce the purchase price to US$53 million plus other potential compensation, based on SpectraLink’s future EBITDA.

Professor Fischel was supported by a team headed up by Vince Warther and included Tim McAnally and Laurel Van Allen of Compass Lexecon’s Chicago office. Attorneys on the case, in addition to John Hartmann, included Dan Moore, Sarah Herlihy, and Dana Hill at Kirkland & Ellis; and William Lafferty at Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell.