David C. Kruse How to pronounce this name. (he, him, his) Partner | Toronto

Recent representative M&A transactions include advising:

• J.M. Smucker on its US$305-million divestiture of its Voortman brand to Second Nature Brands, a CapVest Partners portfolio company

• CyberGuard, a portfolio company of Atlantic Street Capital, on its acquisition of Control Gap

• Gauge Capital on its strategic growth investment in AGT Robotics

• Citation Group (a portfolio company of HG Capital and KKR) on its acquisition of Agendrix Inc.

• GMS Inc. on its C$196-million acquisition of Yvon Building Supplies and its affiliates

• FTV Capital on its acquisition of ZEMA Global Data

• A major record label company on its acquisition of the assets of a Canadian independent record label through the creation of a majority-owned joint venture

• SandboxAQ on a plan of arrangement to acquire Good Chemistry to accelerate its AI simulation platform for drug discovery and material science

• The Walter Group on the acquisition of assets and formation of the new Professional Women's Hockey League

• Citation Group (a portfolio company of Hg Capital and KKR) on its acquisition of HRdownloads

• Founder and investors on sale of 80% of Knix to Essity for US$320-million

• Simpson Oil on the sale of 25% of SOL Investments for 20-million common shares of Parkland Fuel, valued at approximately $700-million

• Schlesinger Group, a portfolio company of Gauge Capital, on its acquisition of Methodify and AskingCanadians

• Litera on its acquisition of Kira Systems and its industry-leading machine learning contract analysis technology

• MCAP on its acquisition of Paradigm Quest, creating Canada's largest non-bank lender with more than C$140-billion in mortgage assets under management

• Dell Technologies on its US$4-billion sale of Boomi to Francisco Partners and TPG Capital

• Ascential Group on its US$162-million acquisition of Perpetua Labs

• Allied Universal on Canadian aspects of its US$5.3-billion merger with G4S, creating the world's largest security firm

• Nasdaq on its US$2.75-billion acquisition of Verafin, Canada's largest software transaction since 2007

• Uptake on its acquisition of ShookIOT

• RTL Group (a listed international media company majority owned by Bertelsmann) on the disposition of its majority interest in BroadbandTV for C$159-million plus a promissory note as part of its IPO

• Dell Technologies on its US$2.075-billion sale of RSA Security to a consortium of investors including Symphony Technology Group, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board and AlpInvest Partners

• Charlesbank on its US$235-million purchase of News America Marketing from News Corp.

• EN Engineering, a portfolio company of Kohlberg & Company, on its acquisition of Kestrel Power Engineering

• GAT Airline Ground Support, a portfolio company of Atlantic Street Capital, on its acquisition of Strategic Aviation Services and Sky Café

• Global Infrastructure Partners in respect of the insolvency of Essar Steel Algoma under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act

• SOL Limited on its C$1.57-billion sale of 75% of SOL Investments Limited to Parkland Fuel

• A major automotive OEM in a global reorganization

• GMS Inc. on its C$800-million acquisition of WSB Titan from TorQuest Partners

• Frontier Capital on its acquisitions of cfactor Works, Igloo Inc. and Agreement Express

• PHI, Inc. on its C$233-million acquisition with Don Wall of HNZ Group Inc.

• A major automotive OEM in acquiring multiple automotive tech companies

• CI Financial on its C$780-million purchase of Sentry Investments and its purchase of Virtual Brokers

• Siemens on its US$200-million purchase of Epocal from Alere

• StructureTone, a portfolio company of Global Infrastructure Solutions, on its acquisition of Govan Brown

• KPS Capital on its US$425-million purchase of TaylorMade Golf from adidas

• Gauge Capital on its acquisition of eDynamic Learning

• The North West Company on its acquisition of North Star Air

• Robert Bosch on its acquisition of TrustPoint

• Summit Park on the formation of Arkive and purchase of assets from Iron Mountain

• A major automotive OEM in its disposition of a bus business

• Agrium on its C$36-billion merger of equals with Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan

• Suncor on its C$1.13-billion sale of its Petro-Canada lubricants division to HollyFrontier

• BCE on its C$675-million acquisition of the remaining interest in Q9 Networks

• McKeil Marine on its sale to TorQuest Partners

• Johnson Electric on its C$800-million purchase of Stackpole

• LafargeHolcim on its €6.5-billion divestiture of assets to CRH

• Holcim in connection with its C$50-billion merger with Lafarge

• Safeway on its C$5.8-billion sale of Canada Safeway to Sobeys

• BCE and Rogers joint venture on its C$1.1-billion acquisition of 75% of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment

• A major automotive OEM in its disposition of non-core brands

David has been recognized in the following publications:

• Chambers Canada Legal Guide – 2022–2026 (Corporate/Commercial – Ontario)

• The Best Lawyers in Canada (2024–2026: Corporate Law; 2026: Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Law)

• Lexpert Special Edition: Finance and M&A 2025

• The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2025 (Consistently Recommended – Private Equity, Repeatedly Recommended – Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Mid-Market, Corporate Commercial Law)

• IFLR1000: The Guide to the World's Leading Financial and Corporate Law Firms – 2021–2024 (Mergers & Acquisitions)

• The Legal 500 Canada – 2021–2023 (Corporate and M&A)

David is actively involved in mentoring and is a past Co-chair of the Blakes Legal Personnel Committee.

David is committed to participating in legal education. He often leads seminars and lectures on several facets of business law. He recently gave a guest lecture on mergers & acquisitions at Osgoode Hall Law School and also spoke on a panel at an Association of Corporate Counsel meeting on cross-border mergers & acquisitions.

• Contributor : Automotive & Mobility – Canada
  Panoramic, Lexology, July 2024

Admitted to the Ontario Bar – 2000
LLB, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University – 1998
BA, McGill University – 1995