ExecutiveBiographies

Tom Johnson specializes in advising clients on mergers and acquisitions, proxy contests, crisis communications, and defense against activist investors, with a particular expertise in media strategy, having spent more than a decade as a financial journalist prior to joining Abernathy MacGregor.  He has helped guide clients through some of the most high-profile takeovers and contested situations, including Sanofi-Aventis’ acquisition of Chattem, Comcast in its acquisition of NBC Universal from General Electric, Wachovia in its merger with Wells Fargo & Co., Barclays PLC in its purchase of certain Lehman Brothers assets, Mittal Steel in its unsolicited takeover of Arcelor, Alcatel SA in its merger with Lucent Technologies, and CVS in its merger with Caremark and defense against a hostile attempt to break up the acquisition.

Mr. Johnson has also done transaction work for Starwood Capital Group, Freescale Semiconductor, GMAC, Sovereign Bancorp, Blockbuster, Yahoo!, Bank of New York, and Washington Mutual.

In addition, Mr. Johnson has extensive experience assisting companies in proxy contests and defense against hostile or unsolicited bids. He has advised Sovereign Bancorp, Quality Systems, Yahoo!, Blockbuster, Rural/Metro Corp., Cutter & Buck and Center Bancorp when they faced opposition campaigns from activist funds.  He has also helped a number of companies with long-term brand building campaigns and guiding them through the initial public offering process.

Prior to joining Abernathy MacGregor in 2005, Mr. Johnson spent four years running the North American Mergers and IPO desk for the Reuters news agency, where he also served as editor-in-charge of the Investment Banking and Finance desk.  Before joining Reuters, Mr. Johnson spent two years at CNN Financial News, where he helped create and run the M&A and IPO desk for the company’s online news service.  Earlier, he spent nearly four years as a senior reporter at The Daily Record, a business and legal newspaper in Baltimore, covering banking and financial companies, economic development, and state politics.

Mr. Johnson graduated with honors from Towson State University, with a degree in Mass Communications.