Michael Koch

Partner

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Michael Koch is a partner in a business law group and the Competition, Antitrust and Foreign Investment Group at Goodmans.

His practice focuses on federal regulatory matters, including  competition, communications, foreign investment and copyright law, in both transactions and litigation.

Michael assists financial and strategic investors - both domestic and foreign - in completing mergers and acquisitions, advises and represents telecommunications and media companies in navigating Canada’s regulatory framework and before tribunals (e.g., the CRTC, Copyright Board of Canada and Competition Tribunal), and advocates on behalf of targets of government-initiated investigations and proceedings brought by the Competition Bureau. Michael also appears before the courts on reviews of, and appeals from, decisions of these bodies.

REPRESENTATIVE WORK

Michael’s representative work includes acting for:

Competition Litigation

• Vancouver Airport Authority in the defense of a landmark abuse of dominance application before the Competition Tribunal
• Trader Corp. in private litigation before the Competition Tribunal
• Comwave Networks Inc. in the defence of a deceptive marketing inquiry concerning advertising claims of their Internet and home phone services

Investment Canada Act Approvals

• Vista Equity Partners in its agreement to acquire DH Corporation and combine D+H with its portfolio company, Misys for $4.8 billion
• Leadon Investment Inc. in its acquisition of British Columbia Investment Management Corp.’s Canadian hotel portfolio, SilverBirch Hotels & Resorts, for over $1 billion
• OMERS Private Equity, the private equity arm of OMERS, in the sale of its portfolio company, Give & Go Prepared Foods Corp. to an affiliate of US private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P.
• Match.com Canada Ltd., a subsidiary of The Match Group, in its US$575 million cash acquisition of PlentyOfFish Media Inc.

Competition Act Clearances

• Postmedia Network Inc. in connection with its acquisition of the Sun Media English language newspapers and digital properties from Quebecor Media Inc. for $305 million
• 7-Eleven Canada Inc. in its acquisition of 144 retail gasoline sites from Imperial Oil

RECOGNITION

Michael is recognized as a leading lawyer in Canada in the areas of telecommunications by Chambers Global, The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, the Lexpert American Lawyer Guide to the 500 Leading Lawyers in Canada, Who’s Who (also for competition law), and Euromoney.

PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT

Michael writes and speaks frequently for the Law Society of Ontario, the Ontario Bar Association and University of Toronto on competition law, administrative law, communications regulation and copyright law, and is a past Chair of the Canada Bar Association’s Competition Section’s Unilateral Practices Committee.

Community Involvement

Michael is a proud kidney donor and serves as an ambassador for Renewal to promote live kidney donation.