Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has advised Orange, the French multinational telecommunications group, on a joint venture (JV) with Publicis, the advertising group. The equally owned JV, called Voilà, specialises in the organisation of digital events for companies.

Voilà provides professionals with a cloud-based platform for hybrid event production, which can be customised and accessed in Software as a Service mode. Tested and validated on more than 30 events in 2021, this platform was launched at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, when professionals were forced to switch to a remote solution for their events. It offers a complete service to help with event preparation, hosting and post-event analysis.

"This deal with Orange illustrates the firm's ability to assist leading international groups on bespoke transactions, particularly in the new technologies and telecommunications sectors in which the team has developed a high level of expertise," said Guillaume Briant, partner, Stephenson Harwood.

The Stephenson Harwood team was led by M&A and private equity partner Guillaume Briant, who was supported by associate Boubacar Diao.