Hall & Wilcox advises Deluxe on sale of Australian web hosting business

News3 June 2022

Hall & Wilcox has advised Deluxe Small Business Sales, Inc., on the sale of all its shares in Hostopia Australia Holding Co Pty Ltd to Newfold Digital, Inc.

Hall & Wilcox has advised Deluxe Small Business Sales, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of NYSE-listed Deluxe Corporation, on the sale of all its shares in Hostopia Australia Holding Co Pty Ltd to Newfold Digital, Inc.

Deluxe is a publicly listed US payments and business technology company with four key divisions: payments, cloud, promotional products and cheques. The Deluxe Australia web-hosting business – Hostopia Australia – served as a trusted hosting provider to more than 50,000 small business customers and hosted 250,000 websites.

The transaction is a strategic divestiture of the Australian business arm of Deluxe Small Business Sales. It will allow Deluxe to streamline its portfolio of businesses, refine its offerings in the North American market, and concentrate its efforts on cross selling its platforms, solutions and services to its four million small business customers and 4,000 enterprise and financial customers.

Hall & Wilcox advised on all Australian law aspects of the deal including the preparation and negotiation of all transaction documents, and assisting with reviewing regulatory submissions.

Corporate & Commercial Partner Oliver Jankowsky led the deal team, which comprised Special Counsel James Bull and Senior Associate Jasmine Koh.

Partners Ben Hamilton and John Gray advised on the competition and IP/IT aspects of the deal respectively, Partner Alison Baker advised on the privacy aspects of the deal, Partner Karl Rozenbergs on employment, and Partner Anthony Bradica on tax. Partner David Dickens also provided advice on discrete matters.

Commenting on the deal, General Counsel of Deluxe, Jeffrey Cotter, said: ‘The Hall & Wilcox team was incredibly responsive. The transaction required significant collaboration and cooperation across different areas of law and between various specialist teams within the broader deal team, as well as across different time zones. Oliver Jankowsky, Jasmine Koh and the team were terrific and were flexible in handling various delays.’

Hall & Wilcox is a leading independent law firm of more than 900 people, including over 100 partners. We service corporate, public sector and private clients, both Australian-based and those offshore doing business in Australia.