When Gentiva Health Services Inc. agreed to buy Odyssey Healthcare Inc. for more than $1 billion in one of the larger healthcare deals of the past decade, lawyers from Greenberg Traurig burned the midnight oil for a month to help make it happen.
Gentiva, represented by Gary Snyder, Stacey Gallant and Ron Eisenman, along with about 27 other lawyers in the firm’s Atlanta, Washington and Miami offices, will pay $27 per Odyssey common share in an all-cash transaction to acquire the Dallas-based company. “Gentiva will be using financing of its existing debt and Odyssey’s existing debt, and the total financing package is approximately $1.1 billion,” Snyder said. “We’ll be handling the financing, too.”
For Atlanta-based Gentiva, the acquisition offers the chance to gain a big chunk of the hospice-care market, which is Odyssey’s focus. Gentiva also provides hospice care, but focuses more on home-health. The combined company is expected to have an average daily patient census of about 14,000 in 30 states.
Odyssey was represented by lawyers from K&L Gates.