Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD), has advised NCR Corporation, a global enterprise technology company for the retail, hospitality and banking industries, on the acquisition of Zynstra for approximately £100 million. Zynstra, based in Bath, has developed innovative "edge virtualisation" software which optimises existing retail store technology to enhance customer and employee experiences through faster innovation and which reduces cost to serve in-store.

NCR is headquartered in Atlanta, does business in 180 countries and is a longstanding client of WBD in the US. This was NCR's first UK acquisition, which was led by Corporate Partner, Tom Fitzpatrick and Corporate Managing Associate Alex Fergus, with support from US Client Partner, Sharon McBrayer Johnson. The wider team involved support from tax, commercial, data protection, IP, employment and pensions specialists in both the UK and the US.

Tom Fitzpatrick, Corporate Partner, commented:

"WBD likes to refer to itself as "the transatlantic law firm close to home" and this deal provides a perfect example of that. Our US network provided us with a great opportunity to work with NCR to acquire an exciting business 12 miles from our Bristol office. We hope the deal proves a huge success.” 

Jamie Graves, NCR Law Vice President, said:

"I'd like to thank the teams at WBD both in the US and the UK for assisting us with the completion of this deal and their ongoing support. This acquisition not only enhances our product capabilities, but also our standing in the vertical industries we serve and provides even more solutions for our customers."

NCR and Zynstra have worked together for several years, reflected in the launch of NCR Software Defined Store introduced in January 2019. This unique, subscription-based virtualisation solution is one of the critical pillars of NCR’s next-generation store architecture for the retail and hospitality industries.

NCR’s solutions help businesses compete in an evolving landscape of physical and digital consumers by providing advisory and consulting services, hardware/software, payments, support and managed services.

Ranking in the UK's top 20 law firms, WBD provides legal expertise in eleven key sectors from across eight offices in the UK, including London, and 18 offices in the US. The firm has a large corporate practice in the UK advising national and international clients on a broad range of corporate transactions, particularly M&A, IPOs, private equity investments as well as growth and development capital fundraisings.