Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz represented Fidelity National Information Services Inc. on its agreement to buy Metavante Technologies Inc. for $2.93 billion, announced April 1. It's an interesting assignment for Wachtell, given that the firm represented Warburg Pincus on its purchase of a 25% stake in Milwaukee-based Metavante when Marshall & Ilsley Corp. spun the company out in 2007. Wachtell has represented Warburg on several financial deals, including its $1 billion investment in Mellon Bank Corp. in 1988, its 2000 investment in Dime Bancorp, its 2001 investment in Arch Capital Group Ltd. and, in 2007, its $1 billion investment in MBIA Inc.

But in representing FNIS on the Metavante deal, Wachtell's Edward Herlihy, Lawrence Makow and Matthew Guest sat across the table from Warburg. FNIS has been an aggressive acquirer, but the company went public only in 2006, when its former owner, Fidelity National Financial Inc., combined the subsidiary with Certegy Inc. The parent used Bear, Stearns & Co. and law firms Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP. For financial advice on Metavante, FNIS turned to Banc of America Securities Merrill Lynch's Jeff Sloan and to Jeffrey Gido and Ali Rahimtula of Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Metavante, for its part, used Tomasso Zanobini and Drago Rajkovic of Barclays Capital; the duo took the matter with them after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed. On the legal side, Metavante brought in Jeffrey Symons, Stephen Fraidin and Claire Sheng of Kirkland & Ellis LLP for the deal. The company also used Walter Skipper, Thomas Phillips and David Olson of hometown law firm Quarles & Brady LLP, where Metavante general counsel Donald Layden Jr. was once an associate. With Wachtell representing FNIS, Warburg Pincus used Steven Gartner and Robert Langdon of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, which the investor also uses regularly.

Daniel Neff, who co-chairs Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz's management committee along with Edward Herlihy, landed a deal of his own in early April by representing Centex Corp. on its $3.1 billion sale to Pulte Homes Inc. Neff had previously advised Centex on various corporate governance issues. The Dallas-based homebuilder also tapped longtime adviser Geoffrey Newton of Baker Botts LLP in Dallas for legal advice. He'd worked with the company on several deals, including the $137 million sale of HomeTeam Pest Defense LLC to Rollins Inc. last year. For banking advice, Centex used Peter Brundage and Michael Carr at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Pulte turned to a Citigroup Inc.'s Richard Moriarty, Nicholas Sakellariadis, Nathan Eldridge and Benjamin Eldredge. Moriarty and Sakellariadis advised the Bloomfield Hills, Mich., builder on its last large acquisition, the $1.8 billion purchase of Del Webb Corp. in 2001. On the legal side, Pulte is using Thomas Cole, Robert Verigan, Dennis Osimitz and Michael Sigal of Sidley Austin LLP. The company used Detroit's Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP on Del Webb; Honigman's Alan Schwartz is on Pulte's board.