O’Melveny Worldwide

John Peshtaz focuses his practice on corporate law, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions. John represents private equity firms and their portfolio companies, and both private and public company buyers and sellers in complex corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, dispositions, co-investments, corporate financings, and securities offerings.

John’s deal experience extends across a wide range of industries, including entertainment and digital media, sports, aerospace and defense, industrials and manufacturing, consumer and retail products, and transportation, among others.

M&A Transactions

  • Represented Nolan Capital, Inc. portfolio company Coastal Farm & Ranch in its merger with C-A-L Ranch Stores, a leading ranch and lifestyle retailer with 33 locations across Idaho, Utah, Nevada and Arizona.
  • Represented Patriot Environmental Services, Inc., a portfolio company of Solace Capital Partners and a leading provider of environmental services across the Western United States, in its sale to Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCCI) for approximately $156 million.
  • Represented TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTMI) in its acquisition of Telephonics Corporation from Griffon Corporation (NYSE: GFF) for $330 million.
  • Represented Brook + Whittle, a portfolio company of Genstar Capital and a leading North American provider of premium prime label solutions, in its acquisition of the Custom Labels Group of Cenveo Worldwide Limited.
  • Represented Platinum Equity portfolio company L&R Distributors, a national distributor of over 25,000 cosmetics, health & beauty care, wellness and general merchandise products, in its acquisition of SJ Creations.
  • Represented Nolan Capital in its acquisition of a majority stake in Coastal Farm & Ranch, a Pacific Northwest-based ranch and country lifestyle retailer.
  • Represented Certified Laboratories, a portfolio company of Warburg Pincus, in its acquisition of EAS Consulting Group, LLC, a leading consulting firm for FDA regulatory matters and compliance.
  • Represented Allied Universal, a leading security and facilities services company in North America, in its acquisition of Midstate Security Company, LLC, a Michigan-based fully integrated electronic security and monitoring systems company.
  • Represented Octo Consulting Group, LLC (a portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partners) in connection with its acquisition of all of the membership interests of Connexta, LLC, a global leader in open source software development and secure discovery solutions for government and commercial customers.
  • Represented Tex Tech Industries, Inc., a portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partners, in its acquisition of the coating and laminating operations and U.S. defense-related operations of Highland Industries, Inc.
  • Represented Arlington Capital Partners in connection with its acquisition of Octo Consulting Group, Inc., a provider of mission-critical solutions for the Federal Government including software development, cloud, infrastructure, blockchain and other emerging technologies.
  • Represented Endeavor Robotics Holdings, Inc. (a leading developer of battle-tested, tactical unmanned ground vehicles and a portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partners) in connection with its sale to FLIR Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLIR) for approximately $385 million.
  • Represented Gryphon Investors and its portfolio company Transportation Insight in connection with its acquisition of Nolan Transportation Group (NTG), one of the largest and fastest-growing non-asset freight brokerages in the United States.
  • Represented United Flexible, Inc. (UFI), a portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partners and a global leader in the design and manufacture of engineering solutions for the transfer of fluids and gases in extreme environments, in connection with UFI’s auction process and sale to UK-based Smiths Group plc for $345 million.
  • Represented Gryphon Investors in connection with a majority investment in Transportation Insight LLC, a leading provider of enterprise logistics and transportation brokerage services.
  • Represented a portfolio company of Riordan Lewis & Haden (a Los Angeles-based private equity firm) in the federal services sector in connection with the acquisition of the assets and operations of an unincorporated business unit of a large publicly traded company.
  • Represented Zemax, LLC, a portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partners and a global leader in optical and illumination design software, in connection with its auction sale to EQT Partners, a global investment firm.
  • Represented Gryphon Investors (a San Francisco-based private equity firm) in connection with its acquisition of Potter Electric Signal Company LLC, a provider of products for the fire safety industry.
  • Represented Qurious.io, Inc., an artificial intelligence speech analytics SaaS provider, in its sale to Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ: PEGA).
  • Represented Emptech, a provider of enterprise level HR solutions and services, in its sale to Experian Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of Experian plc (LSE: EXPN).

Entertainment Transactions

  • Represented Animal Logic, an Australian animation studio, in its sale to Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX). 
  • Represented Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. in its acquisition of Pure Flix, a faith and family entertainment subscription-based video on demand (SVOD) platform.
  • Represented Media Services, a leading provider of human resources and financial services to the entertainment industry, in its sale to Cast & Crew, a portfolio company of EQT.
  • Represented ICM Partners, one of the world's leading talent agencies, in connection with the sale of a minority equity interest to Crestview Partners, a New York-based private equity firm.

Financing Transactions

  • Represented Orbital Sidekick in its $16 million Series A financing round led by Singapore-based Temasek alongside Energy Innovation Capital, Syndicate 708 and existing investors Allied Minds and 11.2 Capital.

*Some of the above representative matters were handled at a prior firm.

Languages

  • Farsi (Persian)

Admissions

Bar Admissions

  • California

Education

  • Georgetown University, J.D.
  • University of Washington, Michael G. Foster School of Business, B.A.

Professional Activities

Externships

  • Honorable Barbara Jacobs Rothstein, US District Court, District of Columbia