About me

Biography

• Handles complex mergers and acquisitions, regular-way equity investments, and highly-bespoke capital solutions and hybrid capital investments.

• Works with companies, asset managers and other investors, and their portfolio companies.

• Attuned to trends in private markets and has broad industry experience.

• Serves as hiring partner for the Houston office.

Jon Boben represents financial and strategic buyers and sellers in complex mergers and acquisitions, and investors and companies in pure equity and hybrid capital investments.

His practice also includes joint ventures, special-situation transactions, management equity arrangements, portfolio company matters, and general corporate counseling.

Jon has experience in a wide array of industries, including automotive, consulting, consumer goods, fintech, health care, hospitality, industrials, infrastructure, legal services, logistics and transportation, manufacturing, oil and gas, oilfield services, packaging, renewable energy, retail, software and information technology, staffing, technology, media and telecom.

Representative Work

Capital Solutions | Hybrid Capital

Top private credit funds and other asset managers and investors in hybrid capital financings and innovate capital solutions—often in the form of preferred stock, structured equity, debt-like pref equity, or convertibles—and other alternative financings:

• $200,000,000 preferred stock investment in an enterprise software company operating a global employment platform

• $500,000,000 preferred equity investment in a midstream infrastructure concern

• $223,000,000 preferred stock investment in a legal technology venture

• $150,000,000 preferred equity investment in an energy joint venture

• $60,000,000 preferred equity investment in a specialty insurance company

• Preferred stock investment in, and recapitalization of, an AI-driven medtech company

• Structured equity investment in a sports nutrition and health food business

• $25,000,000 structured equity investment to support acquisition financings for platform investments

• $30,000,000 structured equity acquisition financing

• Structured equity recapitalization of a private-equity-backed energy infrastructure business

Growth Equity | Venture Capital

Venture funds, growth-equity investors, and other asset managers and investors—as well as startups and entrepreneurs starting businesses—in growth equity, venture capital, and other growth capital financings:

• $100,000,000 preferred equity financing to support fiber-to-the-premise deployments

• $60,000,000 growth investment in an infosec, risk and compliance company

• $125,000,000 preferred stock investment in a communications technology venture

• $150,000,000 preferred stock investment in a leading adtech company

• $75,000,000 preferred stock investment in an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven medical technology company

Private Equity

Private equity firms and other asset managers, sponsors, and investors in leveraged buyouts—platform investments and add-ons—dispositions, recapitalizations, and other portfolio company matters:

• Leveraged buyout of a family of companies involved in the building materials and packaging verticals

• Leveraged acquisitions of:

  • Automotive, consumer electronics, hospitality, and life-sciences companies

  • A manufacturer of industrial products

  • A transportation and logistics business

  • A market research firm

  • A processor and distributor of food products

  • A commercial specialty contractor

  • A compensation consultancy

  • A manufacturer of equipment used in electric power generation, transmission and distribution

• Management buyout of a life-science company

• Leveraged buyout of a materials concern

• Leveraged buyout of an automotive concern

• Formation and financing of a joint venture with a publicly-traded energy infrastructure company

• Portfolio company exit in a $1 billion+ merger with a public buyer

• Minority recapitalization of a staffing and recruitment company

• Acquisition of a developer of utility-scale sustainable infrastructure

• Acquisitions and subsequent dispositions of medical-device distributors

• Debt and equity financing of a fintech business

• Leveraged buyout of a manufacturer of telecommunications accessories and a series of related bolt-on acquisitions

• Leveraged recapitalization of a manufacturer of intelligent infrastructure equipment

Corporate Venture Capital (CVC)

Public and private companies as corporate venture capitalists in corporate VC investments:

• Preferred equity investment in an early-stage sustainable energy technology company

• Preferred stock investment in an early-stage infrastructure software company

• Preferred venture capital financing of an energy technology company

• Preferred equity investment in a development-stage cleantech company operating in the energy transportation space

Strategic Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)

Strategic buyers and sellers in mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, and recapitalizations:

• A public company acquirer in three separate stock-for-stock mergers involving an aggregate transaction value in excess of $2 billion

• The entrepreneur founders of a consumer-products business in a majority recapitalization led by a consortium of private equity buyers

• The sellers in a $1 billion sale of a 50% equity interest in a terminalling business

• An MLP in a merger resulting in a midstream energy business with an enterprise value of approximately $7 billion

• A fintech company in its merger with a public company acquirer

• A Swiss public company in a minority investment in a domestic oilfield services company

• A Fortune 500 company in an acquisition of an oilfield equipment distributor

• A midstream MLP in its disposition of a business unit

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Education

• J.D., University of Houston Law Center, 2012

• M.S., London School of Economics and Political Science, with merit, 2008

• B.B.A., Texas A&M University, 2007

Bar Admissions

• New York

• Texas

Speeches and Publications

• “M&A Basics,” Akin Deal Maker’s Boot Camp, Houston, Texas, October 2022.

• “M&A Basics,” Akin Deal Maker’s Boot Camp, November 2023.

• “M&A Basics,” Akin Deal Maker’s Boot Camp, Houston, Texas, November 2018.

• “Getting the Deal Done: Navigating Key Legal Issues in M&A Transactions,” The Association of Corporate Counsel, Houston, Texas, and The Woodlands, Texas, May 2019.

• “Structured Equity,” Akin Deal Maker’s Boot Camp, Houston, Texas, September 2019.