Gibson Dunn & Crutcher’s London office has scooped US-based Serena Software as a new client by advising the software specialist on its £206m cross-border merger bid for UK company Merant.

The offer sees NASDAQ-listed software specialist Serena offer £136.5p in cash and 0.05 of new shares in Serena for each share in London-listed Merant in a rare example of a US-to-UK cash and stock offer.