Latham, Alston & Bird, and Wachtell advise on Amphenol’s billion-dollar CommScope acquisition.
Amphenol’s $10.5bn acquisition of CommScope’s connectivity and cable solutions unit has drawn in a trio of heavyweight law firms as legal advisors, as the fibre-optic cable manufacturer seeks to expand its presence in the booming broadband and 5G markets.
Latham & Watkins is acting for Amphenol, with a team led by New York and Orange County corporate partners Charles Ruck, Andrew Elken and Brian Umanoff. The same trio also advised Amphenol last year on its $2.1bn acquisition of CommScope’s outdoor wireless network (OWN) and distributed antenna systems (DAS) units.
On the sell-side, CommScope has instructed Alston & Bird, which fielded a team of M&A partners including Mark Kelly, Scott Kummer, Peter Fritz, Justin Howard, Sarah Hess Mackenzie, Bhanu Mathur, Simon Root and Rebecca Valentino. The firm previously advised on the OWN and DAS transaction, with Kelly, Kummer and Scott also leading that team.
Embed from Getty ImagesWachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz is advising The Carlyle Group, which holds approximately $1.2bn of preferred stock in CommScope. The Wachtell team includes corporate partner Mark Stagliano and restructuring partner Benjamin Arfa.
The all-cash deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026, pending regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Amphenol said the acquisition will be accretive to its diluted earnings per share in the first full year post-closing, excluding transaction-related costs.
JP Morgan Securities is acting as Amphenol’s financial advisor, while CommScope is being guided by Evercore.
CommScope, which carried a debt burden of $9.4bn as of December 2024, is in the midst of a strategic restructuring programme, with asset sales intended to streamline its operations and strengthen its balance sheet.
Amphenol, meanwhile, said the acquisition will enhance its offerings in the fast-growing IT datacom space, including fibre optic interconnect products for artificial intelligence and other high-capacity data centre applications. The deal is also expected to broaden Amphenol’s portfolio of fibre optic and other interconnect products across the communications and industrial sectors.
The transaction arrives on the heels of a significant uptick in global M&A activity. According to figures from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), the value of global deals surged 33% year-on-year in the first half of 2025 to reach $1.98trn.
Technology transactions accounted for 18% of that total, the highest for any sector, reflecting growing investment in AI infrastructure, broadband networks and datacom systems.
The first half of 2025 also saw Latham & Watkins top LSEG’s global M&A legal adviser league tables, advising on transactions worth nearly $277.5bn. Wachtell climbed two spots to third place, advising on $204.9bn worth of deals, while Alston & Bird was not among the top 25 ranked firms.
The latest tie-up between Amphenol and CommScope signals continuing consolidation within the connectivity sector, with fibre, datacom and wireless infrastructure players seeking scale and integration to meet soaring demand. The deal also reinforces the growing importance of AI-driven and next-gen network applications in shaping the strategic direction of major telecom infrastructure providers.
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