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Ross Evans

Ross Evans is a leading foreign investment controls lawyer, who focuses on helping clients navigate the shifting global landscape of foreign direct investment (FDI) and national security reviews and regulations, and other regimes providing for security and public interest related geopolitical interventions in corporate, commercial and financial transactions.

His practice covers foreign investment and international trade laws, encompassing FDI, national security and public interest review and approvals, inbound and outbound investment screening, and export control/sanctions matters, alongside related licensing and compliance and internal and regulator-facing investigations.

Ross regularly advises major multinational companies and a broad range of strategic and financial investors. With nearly a decade of global experience managing engagement with UK, EU and international authorities, and a deep understanding of the trade and investment issues connected to critical and strategic assets and technologies, Ross provides strategic and commercial guidance to clients, general counsel and C-suite decision makers, across industries including technology and telecommunications, infrastructure, life sciences, aerospace and defence, engineering, and financial services.

Ross frequently presents on legal developments and trends to industry bodies and trade groups in the United Kingdom and internationally. He has worked in Singapore and Stockholm, and has spent over a year on two separate secondments with a multinational technology company in London and California.

As an elected member of the National Security Committee of techUK, a technology industry trade association, Ross works alongside committee members drawn from the technology and security sector to break down the impact of new law and policy and to advance engagement and understanding between industry and government in the UK. In connection with his expertise in sensitive and emerging technologies, Ross provided industry focused input at the request of the UK Government on drafting secondary legislation and guidance in connection with the UK's National Security and Investment Act (NSIA).

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In this blog post we set out key practical steps for technology-focused deal-making, having regard to the regulatory, antitrust and foreign investment screening issues identified in our earlier blogs here and here.

Key impacts of technology regulation on deal outcomes

The evolving regulatory landscape is having a significant impact on deal outcomes, including (i) longer timelines due to complex regulatory approval requirements; (ii) higher diligence burden, especially around data, AI and ownership transparency; (iii) greater risk allocation pressure in deal terms; and (iv) increased use of creative structures to mitigate regulatory exposure. Continue Reading Technology Industry Trends and M&A Outlook in the EU and UK, Part 3: Recommendations for Tech M&A and Strategic Transactions

Until the last year, merger control in the UK has been fairly hostile towards tech deals, with a highly interventionist competition authority taking an uncompromising line on global deals; even where those deals had only a limited nexus to the UK. The EU has generally taken a more pragmatic approach, clearing Google’s acquisition of Fitbit in 2020, and Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision in May 2023, following the acceptance of remedies by the tech firms. However, it, too, has taken some more hardline positions, such as prohibiting the Booking.com/etraveli merger based on a novel theory of harm related to the Booking.com travel ecosystem. 

This has all taken place against the backdrop of an explosion of tech regulation (see our prior blog post here). The wave of new rules also introduced new merger filing requirements for those tech firms who have been designated as gatekeepers in the EU (under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) (2022)), or firms with strategic market status in the UK (under the Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA) (2024)). Just this month the CMA designated Google with strategic market status (SMS) in general search and search advertising services. This comes, almost to the day, two years after the EU’s designation of Google’s parent company and five others as gatekeepers. More tech regulation is on the horizon, for example the remaining parts of the AI Act, on general-purpose AI, are due to enter into force in the EU in August 2026.Continue Reading Technology Industry Trends and M&A Outlook in the EU and UK, Part 2: Antitrust/FDI Environment for Tech

Technology-focused deals are driving many of the largest global M&A and strategic transactions—whether digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI), digital services or gaming. The successful execution of these transactions and ultimate success of the business opportunities promised by them, depends on understanding how emerging technology, regulation and market norms are evolving. In this three-part blog series, from an EU and a UK perspective, we will cover: (1) the new regulatory landscape for tech, (2) the evolving antitrust and foreign investment screening environment and (3) recommendations for planning, structuring and executing technology-focused M&A and other strategic transactions.Continue Reading Technology Industry Trends and M&A Outlook in the EU and UK, Part 1: The New Regulatory Landscape for Tech