Michael J. Young

Michael advises clients in respect of a broad range of corporate finance and company/commercial transactions, including cross-border and domestic takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and equity issues by public and private companies. He has extensive experience in acting for companies across the sports, entertainment and media sectors, as well as advising companies on their admission to the markets of the London Stock Exchange and subsequent fundraisings. Michael is the EME co-chair of the firm’s Global Corporate Group.

Experience

Representative matters

Advising the Reuben Brothers Group on the consortium acquisition of Newcastle United Football Club

Advising the GMR Group, co-owners of Delhi Capitals, on their acquisition of a majority stake in Hampshire Cricket (including the Utilita Bowl stadium). This landmark acquisition, completed in stages, marked a shift in county cricket ownership, allowing GMR Group to leverage its franchise expertise to develop Hampshire's infrastructure and expand its global cricket presence.

Advised Concord on the purchase of the music catalogues of Tony Banks, Phil Collins, and Mike Rutherford, including their legendary Genesis works

Private M&A

Advising the Reuben Brothers Group on the consortium acquisition of Newcastle United Football Club

Advised Concord on the purchase of the music catalogues of Tony Banks, Phil Collins, and Mike Rutherford, including their legendary Genesis works

Acting for Microsoft Corporation on a number of M&A transactions in the UK and elsewhere in Europe including:

its acquisition of Dutch target, Minit B.V., a leader in process discovery and mining, with various subsidiaries located in Slovakia, US and UK
its acquisition of Softomotive, one of the leading worldwide providers of Robotic Process Automation solutions
on its acquisition of Metaswitch Networks, a leading provider of virtualised network software and voice, data and communications solutions for operators
its acquisition of UK-based Playground Games, a video games developer of ‘Forza Horizon’, a series of racing games for Xbox consoles and Microsoft Windows
its acquisition of UK-based Ninja Theory, a video games developer responsible for a number of renowned releases including ‘Devil May Cry’, ‘Hellblade’ and ‘Heavenly Sword’
its acquisition of London-based Touchtype, the maker of ‘Swiftkey’, a predictive keyboard powered by artificial intelligence.
the UK aspects of its $7.5 billion deal to purchase Nokia’s devices and services business.
the UK aspects of its $1.2 billion acquisition of the business social network, Yammer Inc.
its IP Venture Group on a number of IP-related venture transactions.
a number of acquisitions of technology companies.

Advised Sony Music and The Orchard in relation to its acquisition of the music-recording business Kobalt Music Group Limited for $430 million

Acting for SoundCloud, the world’s largest audio and music platform, on its complex restructuring and fundraising round.

Advised Crestline Europe, LLC on a preferred equity financing for Ascona Group Holding, a UK operator of petrol stations

Advised on the sale of Courier Holdings Ltd, the company behind the ‘Courier’ magazine aimed at start-up businesses and budding entrepreneurs, to RSG Europe Holdings LLC, a subsidiary within the ‘Mailchimp’ group

Advised Concord Music Group with its acquisition of the music catalogue of B-Unique including artists such as James Bay and John Newman

Advised UK-based virtual reality music company MelodyVR on the $70m buyout of US-based Napster

Acting for Concord Bicycle Music on its acquisition of Imagem Music Group

Acting for Wind Point Partners on its management buyout of Pelsis Group by LDC

Acted for Sony Music on the acquisition of the recorded music business of Ministry of Sound

Acting for Xerox Corporation on the sale of its Western European paper business to Antalis International SAS.

Acting for Ascential plc on its acquisition of BrandView Group

Acting for AudioGo on its acquisition of BBC Audiobooks Limited from BBC Worldwide Limited.

Acting for Videoplaza, a VC-backed leader in video advertising technology and monetisation, in their sale to Ooyala, a leading innovator in video streaming, personalisation and analytics

Acting for NASDAQ listed Bsquare on the acquisition of a UK-based provider of embedded software engineering services.

Acting on the sale of the holding company of the metals trading division of the Reuben Brothers Resources Group, Metalloyd Holdings Limited, to commodity trader Gerald Group.

Acting for The Logan Health Group Limited, on the sale of company to InHealth Limited, a leading provider of healthcare and diagnostics services from over 350 locations across the UK.

Acting for Federated Investors on the acquisition of UK-based, short-duration-and-liquidity fund manager, Prime Rate Capital Management LLP.

Acting for Direct Line on its acquisition of the Italian direct insurance business of Royal and Sun Alliance and the Italian and German insurance businesses of Allstate.

Acting for ED&F Man Group on the disposal of its coffee trading business in Kenya and Tanzania.

Acting for Oriental Property Limited on the sale of the companies owning the Battersea Power Station site for £400 million.

Acting for investment management company Duet Asset Management on the acquisition of a Bermudan fund manager with subsidiaries in the UK, US, Australia, Japan and Hong Kong.

Acting for Rank Group on its acquisition of Disctronics, one of the largest DVD and CD replicators in Europe with manufacturing plants in the UK, France and Italy.

Acting for Schawk Inc on its acquisition of the English, Belgian and Spanish businesses of the Weir Group.

Public Company

Acting for One Media IP Group on its fundraise which raised £2.859 million of new equity capital, and £6 million of convertible dept.

Acting for MelodyVR on its reverse takeover by AIM listed Armstrong Ventures plc and on subsequent fundraisings

Acting for Northill Capital on the takeover of AIM listed Alpha Strategic plc by way of scheme arrangement.

Acting for Econergy International plc on its recommended takeover by Suez.

Acting for UK Broadband on its takeover of Keycom plc.

Acting for AIM listed Billing Services Group Limited on the acquisition of a leading Wi-Fi solutions provider and systems integrator.

Acting for ED&F Man Group on its complex carve out acquisition of assets from a US public company, including assets in the US, Canada, Ireland, Denmark, Australia, Korea and the UK.

Acting for Dick’s Sporting Goods on its strategic investment in JJB Sports by way of secured convertible notes.

Acting for The Trading Exchange plc on its acquisition of EBT Mobile Limited and readmission to AIM.

Acting for AIM and ASX listed mining company Metminco Limited on a number of equity fundraises.

Acting for AIM-listed mining company Berkeley Mineral Resources plc on a number of equity fundraises.

Acting for Plant Health Care Plc on its listing on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange.

Acting for mining company CopperCo Limited on its recommended takeover of AIM and ASX Listed company Mineral Securities Limited.

Advised a leading creator of virtual reality music content, EVR Holdings plc on its successful US$13.2 million private share placing on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange

Represented Lionpoint Holdings in its sale to Alpha FMC (LON: AFM).

VC/Early Stage

Acting for Microsoft Corporation in relation to its participation in a $200 million fundraise by Graphcore Limited.

Advised M12 (formerly Microsoft Ventures) as lead investor on a funding round for Memgraph Ltd, which specialises in graph analytics

Acting for OTRO, the football entertainment platform, on its £50 million fundraise.

Acting for renewable energy supplier Bulb (ranked 1st in startups.co.uk’s Startups 100 for 2018) on a number of fundraising rounds

Advising DMG Ventures on its role as lead investor in £100 million funding round of Cazoo

Acting for Studio 1, a developer/producer of high quality unscripted entertainment programming, on its seed fundraise.

Acting for Microsoft’s IP Ventures Group on a number of venture transactions.

Acting for The Drop Technology Limited, a London-based fashion tech startup, on a Series A investment by The Garage Soho.

Acting for Portify, an innovative platform providing flexible benefits for flexible workers, on its seed fundraise led by venture capital firm Kindred.

Acting for interactive fitness app FiiT on its 2.5 million interim funding round led by Connect Ventures.

Acting for Airbeem, an online video platform which combines live and on demand video features, on its £2.5 million fundraise.

Acting for innovative temporary recruitment platform Syft (one of startups.co.uk’s top 10 startups in its Startups 100 for 2018) on its £2.5m seed fundraise led by PROfounders and £6.1m Series A fundraising led by Creandum

Acting for SoundCloud, the world’s largest audio and music platform, on its complex restructuring and fundraising round.

Acting for Starcount on its £5 million fundraise led by Sir Terry Leahy.

Acting for interactive video company Wirewax on its seed fundraise led by Passion Capital and its Series A fundraise led by a US VC fund

Advising Beer52, a company producing craft beers, on its £7 million fundraising.

Advising Vidsy, a start-up which crowd-sources the production of micro video content for brands, on its second early-stage fundraising round

Acting for Mixcloud the UK online music streaming service on its fundraising

Advising Utelly on its seed investment round led by Wellington Partners

Acting for The Dots, an online community for creative professionals, on its seed and £4m Series A fundraisings

Acting for fashion website LuxFix on various fundraising rounds

Acting for Plural AI, a knowledge engine for the finance industry, on its fundraising

Advised M12 (formerly Microsoft Ventures) on a funding round for SuperAwesome, a UK-based online security company

Advised M12 (formerly Microsoft Ventures) as a lead investor on a funding round for Memgraph Ltd, which specialises in graph analytics

Assisted DMG Ventures Limited (the venture capital arm of the Daily Mail and General Trust) with an investment in GPNutrition Limited

Advised Portify Limited on a £2 million venture capital financing from Kreos Capital

Advised on the fundraising for the Bike Club, one of the UK’s largest bicycle rental networks, which raised funding of £5.7 million from Codex Capital

Recognitions

Ranked in Chambers Europe for UK Corporate/M&A: Mid-Market, 2025
Ranked in Chambers UK for London Corporate/M&A: £100-800 million, 2025-2026
Ranked by IFLR1000 as Highly Regarded for United Kingdom, Corporate and M&A, 2025