Image of Austin Jones

Austin Jones

Associate

Email

austin.jones@aoshearman.com

Phone

+1 650 838 3773

Offices

Silicon Valley

V-CARD
Austin has a wide range of experience in corporate and partnership tax transactions, with a particular focus on mergers and acquisitions, domestic and international tax planning, private equity transactions, domestic and international joint ventures and global capital markets transactions.

A significant part of Austin’s practice involves advising publicly traded and privately held companies, private equity firms and other investors in a wide variety of transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures. He also regularly advises emerging growth companies and their founders in connection with choice-of-entity decisions and qualified small business stock (QSBS) planning.

In addition, Austin is an active contributor to A&O Shearman's pro bono practice.

Experience

Representative matters

  • Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. in connection with its USD13.1bn merger with Black Knight, Inc.
  • Brazilian airline Azul S.A. in connection with a comprehensive USD2.25bn debt restructuring.
  • SAP SE in the USD12.5bn acquisition of Qualtrics International Inc. by Silver Lake Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board; in connection with the carve-out and IPO of Qualtrics International.
  • Fairfax Financial Holdings in its USD1.4bn sale of its pet insurance business to JAB Holding Co.
  • Stelco in its USD2.5bn acquisition by Cleveland-Cliffs. 
  • Hitachi in connection with its USD9.5bn acquisition of GlobalLogic Inc. 
  • Citrix Systems, Inc. in connection with its USD2.25bn acquisition of Wrike, Inc.
  • EPIC Brokers & Consultants, and its affiliates in numerous acquisitions, including the acquisitions of Reel Media, LLC by Paragon Insurance Holdings and the acquisitions of Treloar & Heisel, Dixon Wells and Sitzmann, Morris & Lavis Insurance by EPIC. 
  • SAP in the sale of their Digital Interconnect Business (SDI Business) to Sinch AB for EUR225mn, on a cash and debt-free basis. 
  • SNDL in connection with its initial public offering and Nasdaq listing, various financings, acquisitions and strategic transactions, and SEC reporting matters. 
  • Salesforce in its acquisition of ClickSoftware. 
  • A Crown corporation in connection with its USD6.1bn acquisition of Pattern Energy Group Inc. 
  • Celanese in connection with its agreement to sell equity interest in the Polyplastics joint venture to Daicel Corporation. 
  • Microvast Inc. in connection with its potential USD3bn business combination with Tuscan Holdings Corp., a Nasdaq-listed SPAC. 
  • Local Bounti Corporation, a breakthrough U.S. indoor agriculture company combining the best aspects of vertical and greenhouse growing technologies, in its acquisition of California-based complementary indoor farming company Hollandia Produce Group, Inc. 
  • Bluespring Wealth Partners, a subsidiary of Kestra Financial, Inc., in multiple acquisitions.
  • Pushpay Holdings Limited in multipleacquisitions , including its acquisition of Resi Media and Church Community Builder. 
  • Stone Point Capital LLC in its acquisition of TechEssential Holdings, Inc. and AMC Holdings, Inc.
  • The Praetorian Group in its acquisition by Lexipol, a portfolio company of The Riverside Company. 
  • TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P. in the formation of its joint venture, CAVU Investment Partners, LLC, with LibreMax Capital LLC.
  • SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. in its acquisition of Eze Software Group LLC from TPG Capital, L.P. 
  • VMware on its acquisitions of Octarine, Mesh7, Inc. and Datrium. 
  • Nextech Systems in its acquisition of SupraMed.
  • Texas Instruments Incorporated in connection with its acquisition of substantially all of the assets related to the operations of a 300-mm semiconductor factory from Micron Technology, Inc. for USD900mn.
  • Amyris in several transactions, including its brand collaboration joint venture with actress and entrepreneur Tia Mowry.
  • BUSA Acquisition Co., in connection with the acquisition of BankCard USA Merchant Services Inc. from Quisitive Technology Solutions. 
  • Volta Inc. in an agreement to be acquired by Shell USA, a subsidiary of Shell in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately USD169mn.
  • Volumetric Biotechnologies in its acquisition by 3D Systems.
  • Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, Inc. in its acquisition of 2,400,000 shares of Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc.'s common stock.

Pro bono

  • Advising numerous US charities on establishing and maintaining US 501(c)(3) tax exempt status.
  • Providing assistance to low-income taxpayers in tax collection and audit matters with the IRS and California Franchise Tax Board.

Qualifications

Admissions

Attorney-at-Law, California

Academic

BA, Political Science, UC San Diego, 2013

JD, cum laude, UC College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings), 2016

Disclaimer
A&O Shearman was formed on May 1, 2024 by the combination of Shearman & Sterling LLP and Allen & Overy LLP and their respective affiliates (the legacy firms). Any matters referred to above may include matters undertaken by one or more of the legacy firms rather than A&O Shearman.