Dale Araki
Partner
Dale Araki, is partner in O’Melveny & Myers’ Tokyo office. Since joining the firm, Dale has divided his time between our West Coast offices and our office in Tokyo, where he was head of the office from 1994 to 2002. He represents Japanese, US and other overseas companies in a wide variety of international business transactions, and has been cited as a leading foreign Corporate/M&A attorney in Japan by
Chambers Global in their 2009 survey. Dale was also recommended for his work on transactions in the technology, entertainment and multimedia industries in the 2008/2009 Edition of
The Asia Pacific Legal 500.
Dale’s experience includes representation of buyers and sellers across the globe in a wide variety of mergers, corporate and real estate acquisitions and investments, manufacturing and technology joint ventures, and restructuring transactions, both in the United States and in Japan and in other Asian countries. Recent significant representations include the following transactions.
- Representation of Honda in a series of cross border transactions related to its expansion in the aerospace industry, including the establishment of two US subsidiaries, Honda Aero, an aircraft parts manufacturing subsidiary, and Honda Aircraft, which will manufacture the HondaJet, a next generation light business jet; the negotiation of a US joint venture with GE Aviation to manufacture aircraft engines; and investments in other companies in the aerospace industry.
- Representation of Mizuho Securities in the establishment of a private equity fund targeting investment opportunities in China and other non-Japan Asian countries, and in a series of initial investment transactions by the fund.
- Representation of a global private equity firm based in London in connection with the acquisition of a significant Japanese research and development facility from a major pharmaceutical company.
- Representation of Mitsui Chemicals in the sale of Mitsui’s optical disk manufacturing operations in Colorado and in Alsace, France to an Italian purchaser.
Dale is very active in M&A and other transactions involving intellectual property, where he has been primarily involved in representing clients in connection with rights acquisitions, joint ventures, complex licensing arrangements and other investments involving software, trademarks, motion pictures, television and similar properties, and other valuable intellectual property. He has represented clients across a broad spectrum of industries where intellectual property rights are critical. Such clients include Warner Brothers, Disney, NBC Universal, Nomura Research Industries, Honda R&D, Christian Dior and Fendi.
Dale is often engaged to represent clients in transactions that require complex and creative structures or new and innovative legal approaches. During his time with the Firm, Dale has played a leading role in a number of such groundbreaking transactions. Significant matters include the following transactions:
- Representation of Disney in its landmark acquisition of rights to nine Hayao Miyazaki animated film properties; the first major acquisition of a Japanese film library by a major Hollywood studio.
- Representation of Edwards Lifesciences, an NYSE-listed medical products manufacturer, in the acquisition of a major business division, in one of the first transactions structured and closed under Japan’s Corporate Spin-off Law.
- Representation of H&Q Asia Pacific in the acquisition of Pioneer’s Music Channel, the first acquisition of control of a Japanese television broadcaster by a foreign entity.
- Representation of Bankers Trust Company and Deutsche Bank in the consortium that closed the first acquisition by foreign investors of a nonperforming loan portfolio from a Japanese financial institution in 1997.
- Representation of the Macerich Company, one of the largest operators of retail properties in the United States, in its initial public offering, one of the first such transactions utilizing the innovative umbrella partnership REIT, or UPREIT structure.
Professional Activities
Author, “Acquisitions of Minority Interests in U.S. Companies” (in Japanese),
Kokusai Shoji Homu (
International Legal Journal), Vol. 18, No. 12
Co-Author, “Why Japan’s New Corporate Separation Law is Increasing Restructurings,”
The IFLR Guide to Japan, 2003; “Security Interests in Motion Picture Copyrights,”
AsiaLaw, Vol1., No.3Languages, English; Japanese