Over the past five years, Cooley Godward Kronish has handled more than 350 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions, ranging in size from less than $5 million to more than $5 billion, making our practice one of the most active in the country.
We represent all categories of participants in transactions, including buyers, sellers, major stockholders, lenders, financial advisors, management, special board committees, venture capitalists, individual investors, private equity funds, hedge funds and others.
In addition to handling acquisitions of venture capital-backed corporations and other closely held entities, we regularly negotiate acquisitions involving large, publicly traded companies and have negotiated many of the largest mergers completed:
- Telecommunications: $8.0 billion sale of Alteon WebSystems to Nortel Networks
- Software: $7.9 billion Aspect Development, Inc. purchase of i2 Technologies, Inc.
- Medical Device: $1.4 billion sale of Conor Medsystems to Johnson & Johnson
- Life Science: $3.7 Arterial Vascular Engineering, Inc. sale to Medtronic, Inc.
Click here for an extended deal list.
Our experience and client base of over 100 publicly held companies provides us with a current perspective on market deal points, and a unique position from which we can draw to introduce buyers and sellers.
Unlike most law firms, Cooley has a specialized group of highly skilled transactional attorneys who focus exclusively on M&A matters. These attorneys are widely recognized as leaders and experts in their field and are frequently invited to speak on M&A trends and take leadership roles in national professional organizations.
Cooley's M&A attorneys have been honored in numerous publications that list and rank the top attorneys in the United States and the world. Accolades have come from publications such as:
- American Lawyer – Dealmaker of the Year (2005)
- The Best Lawyers in America
- California Lawyer – California Lawyer of the Year (2005)
- Chambers Global Guide to the World's Leading Lawyers (2008, 2009)
- The Daily Journal - Top 100
- Euromoney's Guide to the World's Leading Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyers
- International Who's Who of Merger & Acquisition Lawyers
- Lawdragon - Leading Lawyers in America
- Legal 500 (2008, 2009)
- M&A Advisor – Law Firm of the Year (2004)
Accolades
- #10 for U.S. deals completed in Q1 2009 with values up to $500m
(Source: Bloomberg Global Mid-market Mergers & Acquisitions Rankings Q1 2009) - Ranked top 20 nationally for number of M&A deals completed in 2008 by MergerMarket, MergerStat and Reuters: with 68 deals, valued at $6.98 million
Key Facts
- We have approximately 20 attorneys who devote over 50% of their time to M&A matters, including a core group of five partners who, together with a team of dedicated associates, focus exclusively on M&A deals.
- Our M&A attorneys lecture extensively, and have held leadership positions in the 2,000-member Committee on Negotiated Acquisitions (of the ABA's Section of Business Law) and work closely with leading jurists
- We have handled cross border deals across 25 different jurisdictions, including:
| | Australia | Israel | Romania |
| Belgium | France | Singapore |
| Canada | Germany | South Africa |
| China | Japan | Spain |
| Denmark | Korea | Sweden |
| Finland | Netherlands | Switzerland |
| India | Norway | United Kingdom |
| Ireland | Poland | |
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