Lavery leads the sale of the Omaha Lancers hockey club by Benoît Robert and his partners

October 8, 2014

Lavery is pleased to announce that it acted as counsel to Benoît Robert and his partners in the sale of American Hockey Group, LLC (“AHG”), the operating company of the Omaha Lancers hockey club of the United States Hockey League (USHL). Under this transaction, all of the membership interests of AHG were sold to Crossbar Down, LLC, a Nebraska company. Previously to the closing, the Omaha Lancers had been managed by Benoît Robert who resigned from his position as managing partner further to his appointment as President and CEO of Montreal-based Quebecor Media Sports and Entertainment Group.

Lavery’s transactional team was led by Sébastien Vézina (Sports Law and M&A) and included Guillaume Synnott (M&A), Éric Gélinas (Tax Law) and Anne-Sophie Lamonde (M&A, articling student). Dorsey & Whitney LLP acted as special counsel with respect to American legislation.

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November 28, 2024

Lavery helps the Société du parc Jean-Drapeau adjust Canadian Grand Prix (F1) dates

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November 28, 2024

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La Presse’s Big Gamble Pays Off

Pierre-Elliott Levasseur will always remember a conversation he had in 2010 with Guy Crevier, Editor of La Presse, who was also its president at the time. “The first iPad had just come out. We were both looking at the tablet and, although we didn’t know exactly what to think, we knew we had to do something with this new tool,” says Pierre-Elliott Levasseur, who has been President of La Presse since 2016. The rest, as they say, is history. La Presse’s titanic digital transformation and overhaul of its business model became a case study that has been making headlines for almost 15 years. The last major milestone in this evolution was its change of business model in 2018, when La Presse decided to adopt a not-for-profit structure. This allowed it to diversify its revenue streams by obtaining donations and assistance from the federal and provincial governments, in addition to advertising revenue. 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If La Presse hadn’t transformed itself, it wouldn’t have survived. We had no choice but to take the risk. Pierre-Elliott LevasseurPrésident, La Presse Six years later, the gamble has paid off handsomely. Since the launch of the philanthropic model, over 75,000 people have donated to La Presse. La Presse is the largest independent French-language media in North America, with over 500 employees, including 220 in the newsroom. Every month, La Presse reaches 4 million readers, or 60% of Quebec’s adult population. “The quality of the product remained at the heart of all our decisions: we never compromised on that,” says Pierre-Elliott. 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