DP World: how US politicians got in the way of the lawyers
"Because DP World had done everything properly, they probably thought they were safe," Rawlinson said. "But from a PR standpoint, perhaps they didn't see that it would gather steam that quickly."
Linklaters' Parr ponders this predicament. He claims that nothing could have been done earlier to gain the support of the US public. This is because, under the Exxon-Florio statute, the process to gain clearance from the CFIUS is confidential and, had the company spoken publicly about the process, it would have broken the law.
This placed DP World in a difficult position as the US Congress was quick to stir up trouble for the deal once it realised the level of public support for its opposition. Mid-term elections are looming on the political calendar in November, after all.
The first hint of trouble in the deal was, in fact, when one irate P&O shareholder piped up during a shareholder meeting on 13 February when the deal was approved, questioning whether, because DP World is based in Dubai, it has links to Al-Qaeda.
However, it was P&O's own bed-partner, Miami-based container terminal operator Eller & Co, which really sparked the political debate by launching legal action in Florida and London in an attempt to block the deal and flagging up its 'concerns' with US Senator Charles Schumer.
Schumer became one of the most vocal opponents of the takeover, at one stage questioning whether the US should be "outsourcing our own security". This is despite port security being managed by the US Coast Guard and US Customs, not the port operators.
Eller has a 50-50 joint venture agreement with P&O to operate the Miami Container Terminal, but has been in dispute with P&O over acquiring its shareholding in the joint venture.
As such, despite the UK Court of Appeal's rejection of Eller's petition to overturn the UK High Court's decision to approve the takeover, it still potentially has a lot to gain from DP World being forced to sell its US operations, including those in Miami.
But despite the now rather obvious commercial or political reasons behind the very public opposition to DP World's takeover of P&O, the outcome is still the same. DP World must sell its US operations, which are estimated to be worth $700m (£398.4m), and has called in the big guns for the sale, appointing New York heavyweight Sullivan & Cromwell as key adviser, assisted by Alston for US regulatory issues.
So it appears that the most crucial lesson to be learnt from the deal is that good PR might just be as invaluable as the right legal advice.