Dechert Advises American Express Global Business Travel in its Acquisition of Klee Data System

Dechert LLP advised American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) in connection with its acquisition of Klee Data System (KDS), a global provider of integrated travel technology.

Founded in 1994, KDS has spent more than 20 years innovating integrated travel technology as well as developing industry-leading and award-winning cloud-based solutions for the modern business traveller. Headquartered in France, KDS has operations in the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States.

With a presence in nearly 140 countries, GBT provides end-to-end corporate travels and meeting program management for companies of all sizes and across all industries. GBT is a joint-venture created in 2014 between American Express and an investor group led by Certares LP.

The acquisition of KDS is part of a broader investment strategy by GBT to develop an industry-leading suite of traveler-centric online and digital services, sitting on top of the company’s core technology platform for business travelers. The transaction signed on August 24, 2016 and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2016.

The Dechert team advising GBT was led by corporate partners Stephen Leitzell (Philadelphia) and François Hellot (Paris) assisted by corporate associates Aymeric Gibon, Gwendoline Hong Tuan Ha and Laurent Kocimski (Paris). Additional assistance was given by: Sophie Lafay and Emmanuelle Benvenuti (Paris) on French corporate law aspects; Simon Briggs and Joshua Smith (London) on UK law aspects; Giovanni Russo and Karl Von Rumohr (Munich) on German law aspects; Greg Schernecke and Frank DeSimone (Philadelphia) on US corporate law aspects; Thibault Meiers, Alexandra Briens and Sophie Montagne (Paris) on French employment law aspects; Pierre-Olivier Ally, Clémence Boland (Paris) and Violetta Kokolus (New York) on intellectual property aspects; Jeremy Zucker, Darshak Dholakia (Washington D.C.), Roger Matthews (London), Andrew Wong and Nicole Delgado (Los Angeles) on litigation and compliance aspects; Olaf Fasshauer (Munich) on data privacy aspects and Michael Weiner (New York) on antitrust aspects.

Read the press release in French, "Dechert conseille American Express Global Business Travel dans le cadre de l’acquisition de Klee Data System."

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