Linda G. Michaelson

Michaelson represents entertainment, media and technology clients in strategic transactions such as mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances and other corporate finance transactions.

Though the entertainment industry has been hard hit by the pandemic, Michaelson said her practice has remained active.

“The practice on the entertainment transactional side hasn’t slowed down at all, despite the pandemic and lack of physical productions,” she said. “Clients are still making investments, and there’s still a lot of interest in investing in the entertainment industry.”

Michaelson represented payroll and production management solutions company Media Services in the sale of its assets to Cast & Crew, which provides payroll and human resources, accounting and financial software and services to the entertainment industry. Unlike most deals she works on, this transaction wasn’t all about content. Instead it involved two companies that are ancillary to the entertainment industry.

“It was two strategic players coming together to compete in an industry that had a lot of dominant players to begin with,” she said. “[Media Services] has been operating for 40 years. It’s not your typical ‘VC box’ business, not a typical business that had financial investors, but rather operators who had run the business over the course of their careers and this was their big sale. That made it personal and unique.”

The purchase agreement was signed in February and the deal closed in April. It was one of the first transactions to go through at the start of the pandemic.

“Timing-wise, it was a challenge because everything was shutting down. We were able to still close the deal despite the shutdown of productions, and the impact that had on both Cast & Crew’s business and Media Services’ business,” Michaelson said.

After nearly three decades working on transactions, she hasn’t tired of the work. There’s always some aspect of the situation that makes it feel like a new experience, she said.

“It’s kind of fun to advise someone where this is their most important sale process – they’ve built the company over many years and have the opportunity to sell – or you’re dealing with a sophisticated in-house legal team,” she said. “In both situations, they appreciate your business judgment.

“Which is nice, because after all these years, I feel like we’re not just helping clients address legal issues anymore, but we really are bringing that business perspective to the relationship.”

— Jennifer Chung Klam