C. David Goldman is huge in Korea. Or at least he was in May 2011. “There were pictures of me in a few publications there. Of course, it’s all in Korean,” he says. The McDermott Will & Emery mergers and acquisitions partner had done deals in Korea before without generating too much attention. But the acquisition he pieced together that saw his Korea-based clients Fila Korea Ltd., a sportswear manufacturer, and Mirae Asset Private Equity acquire Fortune Brands, Inc.’s Acushnet unit for $1.23 billion created quite a hullabaloo. “This deal had huge visibility in Korea,” he says. It was one of the largest Korean outbound M&A transactions, but it wasn’t the size that mattered, it was the target. Acushnet owns Titleist, the top golf ball brand in the world. And as Goldman points out, Korea is nuts for golf.
In December 2010 Deerfield, Illinois-based Fortune, represented by Edward Smith at Chadbourne & Parke, announced that it wanted to spin off or sell a few of its subsidiaries as part of its plan to focus solely on its spirits business, which owns brands like Jim Beam bourbon, Canadian Club whisky, and Bethenny Frankel’s Skinnygirl margarita. Fortune would sell its golf division through an auction.
