Lyle G. Ganske

Partner

Lyle Ganske advises significant companies, focusing primarily on mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, takeover preparedness, corporate governance, executive compensation, and general corporate counseling.

He has extensive experience with M&A involving a broad array of industries, including telecom, energy, manufacturing, retailing, and process industries. Representative transactions include: Nextel Communications' $46.5 billion merger-of-equals with Sprint, Albertsons' $17.4 billion acquisition by a consortium of investors, Federated Department Stores' $17 billion acquisition of May Department Stores, Procter & Gamble's $3.3 billion divestiture of Folgers, The Lubrizol Corporation's $9.7 billion acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway, and Goodrich Corporation's $18.4 billion merger with United Technologies.

Lyle also has been involved in numerous hostile takeover defenses, including Diebold, Incorporated, Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., GenCorp, and U.S. Shoe. He has represented public companies in proxy contests and most recently successfully represented A. Schulman, Inc., Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., and STERIS Corporation against proxy solicitations.

American Greetings, Chrysler Corporation, General Electric, Goodrich, Macy's Inc., Nationwide Financial Services, Procter & Gamble, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Scientific-Atlanta, and Sherwin-Williams are among other companies Lyle has advised on substantial matters.

Lyle is a frequent speaker on M&A and corporate governance issues and has coauthored many articles, including "Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Avoiding the Solvency-Related Pitfalls in Spinoff Transactions" in The Business Lawyer. He is a member of the Ohio Business Roundtable and serves on the boards of the Greater Cleveland Partnership (Executive Committee and co-chair, Commission on Economic Inclusion), Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, and Flashes of Hope.