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.

Recognition

• Davis Polk’s California litigation practice was “Highly Recommended” by Benchmark Litigation 2012.
  
  
• Ranked 1^st in California M&A transactions announced in the first half of 2011, according to mergermarket
  
  
• Ranked in the 1^st tier in California Capital Markets: Debt & Equity in Chambers USA 2011

Recent Matters

M&A

• In recent years, our Menlo Park lawyers have been involved in a broad range of M&A transactions ranging from small private deals to some of the most significant mergers, acquisitions and joint venture transactions in the technology sector. Recent M&A representations include advising: 
  • Special committee of GSI Commerce board of directors in connection with the company's $2.4 billion acquisition by eBay, a San Jose, California-based online marketplace. GSI Commerce is a King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based provider of ecommerce and interactive marketing services
  • Palm on its acquisition by Hewlett-Packard Company; the transaction is valued at approximately $1.4 billion on an equity basis and $1.2 billion on an enterprise value basis
  • Symantec, a provider of storage and systems management solutions, on its $1.28 billion cash acquisition of the authentication and identity security business of VeriSign, a provider of Internet infrastructure services to various networks worldwide
  • Blue Coat Systems, a Sunnyvale, California-based provider of web security and WAN optimization solutions, in connection with its approximately $1.3 billion acquisition by an investor group led by Thoma Bravo, a San Francisco, California-based private equity investment firm.
  • Oracle on its $1 billion acquisition of Art Technology Group, a leading provider of cross-channel e-commerce software solutions and $685 million acquisition of Phase Forward, a provider of applications for life sciences companies and health care providers
  • LoopNet, an online commercial real estate marketplace, on its $860 million acquisition by CoStar Group, a commercial real estate information company.
  • 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
  • SMART Modular Technologies, a Newark, California-based independent designer, manufacturer and supplier of electronic sub-systems to original equipment manufacturers, in connection with its $645 million acquisition by Silver Lake Partners, a Menlo Park, California-based private equity and venture capital firm, and Silver Lake Sumeru, a fund of Silver Lake Partners and Shah Capital Partners.
  • Noble Group, a Hong Kong-based global supply chain manager in five business segments, on its $582 million acquisition of Sempra Energy Solutions, a San Diego, California-based retail power, energy and electricity utility and a unit of a Sempra Energy and RBS joint venture 
  • Roper Industries, an electrical components and equipment manufacturer, on its $525 million acquisition of iTradeNetwork, a provider of Web-based software that automates the supply chain for the retail and foodservice industries, from Accel-KKR, a technology-focused private equity investment firm
  • Reliance Steel & Aluminum, a Los Angeles, California-based diversified steel company, in connection with its $415 million acquisition of Continental Alloys & Services, a Houston, Texas-based global materials management company focused on high-end steel and alloy pipe, tube and bar products.
• We have advised Oracle on a range of matters including its hostile takeover of PeopleSoft and numerous other acquisitions including Phase Forward, GoldenGate Software, Primavera Software, Global Knowledge Software, Hyperion Solutions, Siebel Systems, i-flex and Retek.
• We advised Comcast in several acquisitions, investments, and strategic intellectual property joint ventures with companies such as Microsoft, Motorola, Sony and TiVo.
• We advised on a series of acquisitions by a wide range of technology and life sciences companies, including Roper Industries, Equinix, KLA-Tencor, Roche, Affymetrix, Blue Coat, MediaTek and Software AG.
• We have also advised our clients on sales of a variety of public and private companies, including Palm, Getty Images, Silicon Graphics, NetIQ, Photon Dynamics, PowerDsine and AMI Semiconductor.
• In the private equity space, we advised Francisco Partners, Vector Capital, and their portfolio companies in numerous acquisitions, joint ventures and related financings. We have also advised several target’s in connection with investments or acquisitions by private equity investors including E*Trade Financial, Getty Images, Palm and MSC.Software.

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

• We represent T-Mobile in class action litigation, including numerous consumer class actions related to early termination fees, late payment fees, the legality of handset locks and customer service agreement disputes, as well as, approximately 40 federal antitrust class actions alleging that major U.S. wireless service carriers fixed text-messaging rates.
• We defended Palm and its directors against 13 separate lawsuits claiming that the defendants breached their fiduciary duties to Palm’s shareholders by agreeing to allow Palm to be acquired by Hewlett-Packard, obtaining a stay of 12 actions and settling the 13^th on favorable terms.
• We represent LG Electronics against a coordinated MDL federal antitrust proceeding, encompassing over 30 nationwide class actions, that alleges a global price-fixing conspiracy in the market for optical disk drives and claims potential overcharges in excess of $1 billion.
• We are lead counsel for Comcast in an antitrust class action in Los Angeles federal court brought on behalf of all U.S. cable television subscribers which challenges the practice of distributing television channels to consumers in “bundled tiers” as opposed to on an “a la carte” basis.
• We successfully defended Oracle against California shareholder litigation arising from its $7 billion acquisition of BEA Systems.
• We represented 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.
• We have conducted internal investigations and board counseling assignments for companies like CNET, Affymetrix, KB Homes and Photon Dynamics.

Intellectual Property

• We have represented VNUS in patent infringement litigation since 2005, in connection with the endovenous treatment for varicose veins. Litigation included a jury verdict of infringement and an award of $45.8 million in favor of VNUS, and several favorable settlements.
• We represent Yahoo! in patent infringement litigation filed by Xerox against Yahoo! and Google in the District of Delaware. We also recently represented Yahoo! in patent litigation against AOL in the Southern District of New York.
• We represent Comcast in several patent infringement litigations, including litigation relating to the optimization of websites for display on mobile devices, video-on-demand services, digital voice phone service, network address book services and automated call processing technology.
• We have represented Playtex in several IP litigations, including litigation asserting false advertising claims under the Lanham Act and patent litigation concerning feminine care products.
• We defended Energizer Holdings and Eveready Battery Company in patent litigation in the Southern District of California concerning plastic injection molding manufacturing processes.
• We represented Sony Corporation in connection with the enforcement of various Sony patents relating to its consumer electronics technology.