Discover Financial Services has agreed to merge with Capital One Financial in a $35.3 billion all-stock transaction that combines Capital One’s scale in credit cards and banking with Discover’s vertically integrated global payments network, enhancing the combined company’s ability to compete with the nation’s largest credit card networks.
Discover’s existing payments network is comprised of more than 70 million merchant acceptance points in more than 200 countries and territories. The merger will provide additional capital to scale Discover’s customer network and allow Capital One to work directly with merchants and leverage its customer base, technology, and data ecosystem to drive more sales.
The S&C team advising Discover includes Rodge Cohen, Mitch Eitel, Jared Fishman, Ethan Chess, Rayna Guo and Adam Toobin. Marc Treviño, Sarah Remmer Long and Brittney Kidwell advised on executive compensation matters. Eric Wang, Michael Orchowski and James Jang advised on tax matters. Mehdi Ansari and Elizabeth Levin advised on intellectual property matters.