Tyco International Ltd. tapped Citigroup Inc. and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP for the $2 billion acquisition of Brink's Home Security Holdings Inc., Tyco's first significant acquisition since Edward Breen (pictured) replaced Dennis Kozlowski as CEO in 2002.

Tyco general counsel Judith Reinsdorf knew Simpson antitrust partner Kevin Arquit from earlier in her career and had worked with the firm when she served as medical products maker's C. R. Bard Inc.'s general counsel, from 2004 to 2007. Alan Klein is leading the Simpson team on the Tyco deal, with Citi's Eduardo Cruz and Nathan Eldridge. providing banking advice.

Kozlowski was voracious in buying new companies and for legal advice often used Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP. That firm advised Tyco on its $5.6 billion purchase of ADT Ltd. in 1997 and the $10 billion purchase of AMP Inc. the next year. Tyco used some 44 firms and its own corporate development team for financial advice on a whopping 110 deals between 2000 and 2006. It often turned to Lehman Brothers Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan, with each advising Tyco on four deals.

Under Breen, the company has focused mainly on divestitures, a rationalization capped by the 2007 breakup of Tyco into three companies. Goldman, along with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, advised Tyco on that deal, which included the spinoffs of its healthcare and electronics units to shareholders.

For its acquisition by Tyco, Brink's Home Security tapped Thomas Hughes and James Griffin of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP, which thanks to a relationship with BHS general counsel John Davis, has been the company's corporate counsel since Brink's Co. spun it out in October 2008 in response to shareholder pressure. Morgan Stanley advised on the spinout, and the bank's Will Dotson, Eli Gross and Lyle Ayes advised BHS.