One of the things we lawyers have to live with is secrecy. Put simply, if we reveal client confidences we can lose our licenses. This necessarily leads us to be über careful.
I have been uber careful about not mentioning a transaction in which my firm represented the Chinese company VanceInfo. The transaction was between VanceInfo and Expedia and I was not comfortable writing anything on it until I was 100% certain it had gone public. Working with VanceInfo's in-house legal team, my law firm provided the US side legal representation in negotiating the contract with Expedia and related activities.
But even now, I am constrained from revealing anything substantive beyond that which has already been made public. I have to be particularly careful because VanceInfo is a publicly traded (NYSE) company. But I wish to highlight this deal because I see it as a harbinger of the sort of thing we will all be seeing more of from Chinese companies as they expand worldwide.
So I waited and waited and never saw anything.... Until now.
I saw that VanceInfo started following me on Twitter and so I checked out its Twitter page and learned it consists (so far) of one Tweet, and that one Tweet links over to their September 23, 2009 press release announcing its deal with Expedia on which my firm and I worked so hard.
The press release states the following:
Beijing, September 23, 2009 -- VanceInfo Technologies Inc. (NYSE: VIT) (“VanceInfo”) (the "Company”), an IT service provider and one of the leading offshore software development companies in China, today announced the official launch of an offshore development center (“ODC”) in Shenzhen, China with Expedia, Inc. (“Expedia®”), the world's leading online travel company. The opening ceremony will be attended by Chris Chen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of VanceInfo and Pierre Samec, Chief Technology Officer and Global Executive Vice President of Expedia®. After the successful completion of a four-month preparatory and transitional period, VanceInfo established the ODC in accordance with the multi-year contract with Expedia signed in May 2009. The two companies have worked together to build a global delivery team in the ODC that provides design, development, testing, production, and maintenance of online travel services platforms, enabling Expedia to enhance the core platforms and services while improving time-to-market and increasing competitive agility."We are pleased to be selected by Expedia following a stringent vendor selection process that involved many outsourcing players in China,” said Chris Chen, the VanceInfo CEO. “Our collaboration with Expedia has reached a new milestone with the seamless and successful completion of multiple project transitions while launching the new ODC. Leveraging China’s unique talent advantages, we are committed to delivering first-class IT services with flexible delivery models to support Expedia’s global expansion.”
VanceInfo has built and currently operates ODCs for multinational corporations in technology, telecom, financial services and manufacturing industries. This new Shenzhen-based ODC marks a breakthrough for VanceInfo in the travel and transportation industry and is anticipated to further enhance the Company’s overall global delivery capabilities to service major outsourcing initiatives of multinational clients.
VanceInfo was formed in 1995 and it already has more than 7000 employees worldwide and three offices in the United States, including one in Seattle, which is also where Expedia is based.
We are honored to have represented VanceInfo on this important deal and to have had the opportunity to work with so many great people on its management team.