Ropes & Gray Advises Ginkgo Bioworks in $300 Million All-Stock Acquisition of Zymergen

Ropes & Gray advised Ginkgo Bioworks, a horizontal platform for cell programming, in an agreement to acquire biotechnology company Zymergen in an all-stock transaction that values Zymergen at approximately $300 million.

Under the agreement, which has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of both companies, Zymergen stockholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 0.9179 Ginkgo shares for each Zymergen share, representing a 5.25% pro forma ownership of Ginkgo following the transaction that was announced on July 25.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by mergers & acquisitions partner Suni Sreepada, mergers & acquisitions associate Kate Fisher and mergers & acquisitions partner Marko Zatylny and included IP transactions partner Amanda Austin, employment & benefits partners Renata Ferrari, Richard Kidd and Megan Bisk, tax partner Pam Glazier, litigation & enforcement partners Lisa Bebchick, Mike McFalls, Martin Crisp, Ama Adams and Ruchit Patel, life sciences regulatory & compliance partner Kellie Combs, real estate partner Peter Alpert, data, privacy & cybersecurity partner Ed McNicholas, IP transactions partner Melissa Rones, business restructuring partner Andrew Devore, private equity partner Milap Patel, health care counsel Leslie Thornton, life sciences regulatory & compliance counsel Beth Weinman, litigation & enforcement counsel Deidre Johnson, Alison McLaughlin and Joseph Rafferty, real estate counsel Laurie Nelson and private equity counsel James Kaplan.