A&O Shearman, Studio Scozzi and LEAD Studio Legale advise on Dedagroup's investment in Istella

A&O Shearman and Studio Scozzi acted as advisors to Dedagroup, while LEAD Studio Legale represented Istella in the transaction. Dedagroup, a leading Italian technology group operating internationally and supporting the digital transformation of over 4,000 clients, has entered the share capital of Istella, a company specialised in data analysis and the development of generative artificial intelligence models. Dedagroup acquired an initial 39% stake with an option to increase its holding. The investment forms part of Dedagroup’s strategy to secure advanced AI solutions to promote market adoption and to support its clients — including financial institutions, corporations and the public administration — in evolving towards AI-driven business models. Dedagroup implements this strategy through sustained investments (more than EUR 50 million in the last year alone) and via its subsidiary Deda Ai, which, with a team of over 200 professionals, serves as the Group’s AI competence centre to accelerate responsible, scalable and integrated adoption of these technologies. The company also pursues continuous scouting of solutions to ensure data sovereignty, algorithmic transparency and full control of processes. Istella’s entry into Dedagroup’s capital is consistent with this approach. Istella, founded by Renato Soru and Domenico Dato — who retain 45.4% and 14.7% of the company respectively — has developed a unique technological asset in Europe based on a proprietary infrastructure for large-scale data collection and analysis. Over time the system has indexed more than 6 billion web pages (around half in Italian), over 4 billion social interactions and hundreds of millions of multimedia contents, producing a substantial knowledge graph that links millions of information nodes and enables more precise AI understanding and utilisation. A&O Shearman represented Dedagroup with a team composed by: partner Emanuele Trucco (team leader), senior associate Greta Dell’Anna, associate Mara Cagnana and trainee Duccio Cangioli; partner Livio Bossotto and associate Paolo Astarita for labour law matters; senior associate Margherita Banfi for intellectual property; and associate Arianna Fletcher for antitrust. Studio Scozzi represented Dedagroup with a team composed by: name partner Maurizio Scozzi and directors Daniel Frizzera and Caterina De Faveri, acting as advisor on contractual negotiation and on the fiscal and financial due diligences. LEAD Studio Legale represented Istella with a team composed by: partner Giuseppe Carteni and junior partner Marcello Moreo, overseeing the drafting of transaction documentation and all phases of the negotiations.

A&O Shearman, Studio Scozzi and LEAD Studio Legale advise on Dedagroup's investment in Istella

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