Sard Verbinnen & Co. is providing PR counsel in Marriott International's $12.2B bid to acquire Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, a deal to create the largest hotel company.
The combined hotelier would encompass 30 different brands, 1.1M rooms and 5,500 hotels across 100 countries. Along with the Starwood and Marriott brands, the combination will include Westin, W, Sheraton, Ritz Carlton, Residence Inn and Fairfield Inn, among others.
Sard chairman and CEO George Sard and managing director Stephanie Pillersdorf are advising Starwood in the transaction. Marriott said its in-house team is handling communications alone.
The acquisition, announced Nov. 16, includes $11.9B in Marriott stock and $340M in cash. Marriott said it will save $200M in operating costs by the second year, with an extra $1.5 to $2B from Starwood's ongoing sales of owned hotels.
"We have competed with Starwood for decades and we have also admired them," said J.W. Marriott Jr., chairman of Marriott's board.
Subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to close by mid-2016.
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