20 March 2005 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Chadbourne & Parke LLP is representing Fortune Brands, Inc. in the spin-off of its ACCO World Corp. office products unit.
Under the deal, announced March 16, Fortune Brands will spin off to stockholders its ACCO World office products unit and ACCO World will thereafter merge with General Binding Corp. to create the world’s largest supplier of branded office products.
Working on the deal for Chadbourne are corporate partners Edward Smith and Robert Colby in the New York office, tax partner William Cavanagh in New York, corporate counsel Barry Eisler in New York, and two Washington DC office partners, Andrew Giaccia on environmental issues and Michael Salsbury who is working on anti trust issues. Key associates working on the deal were David Santangelo and Dorothy Wisniowski, both with the corporate practice in New York.
For Chadbourne, the deal marks the eighth major spin-off the Firm has worked on in recent years, including a previous spin-off by Fortune Brands of Gallaher Group Plc, the U.K.’s largest tobacco company.
