About the Office

Davis Polk's Menlo Park office combines the firm's traditional strengths in transactional, advisory and litigation work with an in-depth understanding of the unique attributes of technology companies. The office serves as the focal point for the firm's global technology practice.

Recent Matters

• M&A
  • Equinix, a provider of global data center services, on its $689 million acquisition of Switch & Data, a provider of data center and Internet exchange services.
  • Getty Investments on the $2.4 billion private equity buyout of Getty Images, the world’s leading creator and distributor of visual content and other digital media, by affiliates of Hellman & Friedman
  • Oracle in its hostile takeover of PeopleSoft and numerous other acquisitions including Primavera, Global Knowledge Software, Hyperion Solutions, Siebel Systems, i-flex and Retek
  • E*Trade Financial in a complex $2.5 billion investment and asset restructuring transaction with Citadel Investment Group
  • Acquisitions by a wide range of technology and life sciences companies, including KLA-Tencor, Roche, Affymetrix, Blue Coat, Palm, MediaTek and Software AG
  • Sales of a variety of public and private companies, including NetIQ, Photon Dynamics, PowerDsine and AMI Semiconductor
  • Comcast in several acquisitions, investments, and strategic intellectual property joint ventures with companies such as Microsoft, Motorola, Sony and TiVo
  • Francisco Partners, Vector Capital, and their portfolio companies in numerous acquisitions, joint ventures and related financings
• Capital Markets
  • More than 40 IPOs since 2006 involving a wide variety of technology and life sciences issuers
  • More convertible financings in Silicon Valley than any other firm, working with and for companies like Equinix, Intel, AMD, Xilinx, Affymetrix, NetApp, VeriSign and Theravance
  • Investment-grade and high-yield debt offerings for Oracle, Comcast, Cisco, Intuit, Spansion and other prominent companies
  • Helped to design innovative employee option transfer programs for Google and Microsoft
• Litigation
  • Internal investigations and board counseling assignments for companies like CNET, Affymetrix, KB Homes and Photon Dynamics
  • T-Mobile USA in state and federal class actions in California, Florida, Idaho, New Jersey and Washington that challenge the legality of early termination fees in wireless services contracts, and seek refunds in excess of $1 billion. In federal court in New Jersey, T-Mobile won preliminary approval of a favorable nationwide settlement of all early termination fee claims
  • Affiliates of Comcast in defending claims brought in California state court by the Golden State Warriors basketball team alleging breach of the team’s broadcast rights agreement
  • T-Mobile in approximately 40 federal antitrust class actions alleging that major U.S. wireless service carriers fixed text-messaging rates. There is a related U.S. Senate investigation, which we are also handling
  • CVS/Caremark in defending against California shareholder litigation arising from its tender offer for Longs Drugstores
  • Oracle in defending against California shareholder litigation arising from its $7 billion acquisition of BEA Systems, Inc.
  • Comcast in an antitrust suit in federal court in Los Angeles challenging (bilateral) agreements between defendant television programmers and defendant cable and satellite providers, which allegedly result in the sale of cable channels in “bundled tiers”
  • We won a significant victory for AstraZeneca in pharmaceutical-industry-wide indirect purchaser antitrust litigation that raises important issues under California law. Davis Polk argued successfully on behalf of all defendants before the trial court (obtaining summary judgment) and the intermediate appellate court. The appellate court unanimously held, as a matter of first impression, that California law permits antitrust defendants to offer evidence that indirect purchaser-plaintiffs “passed on,” and did not suffer from, alleged overcharges. Clayworth, v. Pfizer, Inc., 165 Cal. App. 4th 209, 83 Cal. Rptr. 3d 45 (2008)
• Intellectual Property
  • VNUS Medical Technologies in patent litigation in the Northern District of California to enforce VNUS's patents relating to the surgical treatment of venous reflux disease; earlier litigation against a different group of defendants resulted in a favorable settlement for our client
  • Defending Comcast and its subsidiary Plaxo in patent litigation concerning network address book services
  • Playtex in litigation in the Southern District of New York asserting false advertising claims under the Lanham Act
  • Defending Energizer Holdings and Eveready Battery Company in patent litigation in the Southern District of California concerning plastic injection molding manufacturing processes
  • Playtex in patent litigation in the Southern District of New York concerning feminine care products
  • Comcast in patent litigation in the Eastern District of Texas concerning features of the Comcast Digital Voice phone service
  • We obtained a summary judgment of noninfringement and final judgment in favor of Comcast in patent litigation in the Eastern District of Texas concerning Comcast's video-on-demand services
  • Comcast in the Central District of California and the District of Delaware in connection with patent litigation concerning automated call processing technology
  • Sony Corporation in connection with the enforcement of various Sony patents relating to its consumer electronics technology