Gregory T. Davidson is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Palo Alto office and Co-Chair of the firm’s Emerging Companies Practice Group. He is also a member of each of Gibson Dunn’s Corporate Transactions, M&A, Capital Markets, and Private Equity Practice Groups. Mr. Davidson’s corporate practice includes extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, private equity, joint ventures, corporate finance and general business law matters. He regularly advises public company clients in connection with SEC filings, public disclosure, corporate governance and other securities laws matters.
Mr. Davidson also represents venture capitalists and corporate strategic investors, as well as companies in connection with private placements of equity and debt, and he counsels start-up and emerging growth companies in all aspects of their corporate legal requirements.
Mr. Davidson represented Intel Capital in connection with its $600 million investment in Clearwire — at the time the largest ever venture capital transaction. Later, he again represented Intel Capital for its $1 billion investment in the entity formed by the merger of Sprint’s WiMAX business and Clearwire, its additional investment in Clearwire, and the acquisition of Clearwire by Sprint Nextel. Mr. Davidson served as counsel to Accuray Incorporated, developer of the CyberKnife radiosurgery system, with respect to its strategic alliance agreement with Siemens and its merger agreement with TomoTherapy. He also represented Allergan in connection with its collaboration and co-promotion agreements with, and subsequent acquisition of, MAP Pharmaceuticals. In addition, Mr. Davidson represented MTC Holdings, a port terminal operator, in connection with its acquisition by Highstar Capital private equity fund, and Total Produce plc, an Irish produce company, in connection with its multiple acquisitions of California-based companies.
Mr. Davidson has been regularly ranked by Chambers USA – American Leading Lawyers for Business as a Leader for his mergers and acquisitions/venture capital practice.
Mr. Davidson joined Gibson Dunn in 1988 after earning his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He received his Bachelor’s degree with distinction in political science and economics from Stanford University in 1985. He is the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of United Way Silicon Valley.
Representative Transactions Handled by Gregory T. Davidson
Selected Mergers and Acquisitions
Intel Corporation
- Simultaneous merger of Clearwire Corporation and Sprint-Nextel’s WiMAX business and investment by Intel and others in the combined entity
- Acquisition by Sprint Nextel of 100% of Clearwire (including Intel’s equity interest)
- Acquisition of Kno, Inc., an educational software and e-textbook platform developer
- Acquisition of Omek Interactive, an Israeli developer of gesture recognition interface software
- Acquisition of InVision Biometrics, an Israeli 3-D gesture recognition technology developer
- Acquisition of Telmap, an Israeli location-based services provider
- Sale of Numonyx Holdings (a joint venture of Intel, STMicroelectronics) to Micron Technology
- Various acquisitions of other strategic target companies
Xilinx, Inc.
- Acquisition of AccelChip, a provider of synthesis software tools for building digital signal processing (DSP) systems
- Acquisition of Hier Design, a developer of hierarchical floor planning and analysis software for FPGAs
- Acquisition of Triscend, a developer of field configurable systems-on-chip devices
- Acquisition of MI Acquisition, a software tools developer
- Acquisition of Philips Semiconductors’ line of low-power CPLDs
Allergan, Inc.
- Acquisition of MAP Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded pharmaceutical company
- Acquisition of Aczone® product line from QLT
Accuray Incorporated
- Acquisition of TomoTherapy Incorporated, a radiation therapy company
- Acquisition of Mophormics, Inc., a medical imaging technology company
National Veterinary Associates
- Representation of senior management team in acquisition by Ares Management
CKE Enterprises
- Representation of senior management team in acquisition by Roark Capital
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
- Acquisition of Peplin Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, by LEO Pharma
St. Jude Medical
- Acquisition of Savacor, a developer of heart failure diagnostic and therapy guidance products
Building Materials Holding Corporation (BMC Select)
- Numerous acquisitions of building materials and construction services providers
MTC Holdings/Marine Terminals Corporation
- Acquisition of MTC Holdings, a port terminal operator, by Highstar Capital private equity fund
- Various acquisitions of port terminal operators
Total Produce plc
- Acquisition of controlling interest in EcoFarms and related entities
- Acquisition of controlling interest in Progressive Produce
Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin Capital
Western Digital Corporation
- Sale of disk media business to Komag
- Sale of local area network business to Standard Microsystems
- Sale of multimedia products unit to Philips Semiconductors
Hostile Takeovers
- PeopleSoft, Inc. – hostile tender offer by Oracle Corporation for $10.3 billion.
Selected Venture Capital and Other Private Financing Transactions
- Intel Corporation and Intel Capital – numerous equity investments in high technology companies and related technology licensing agreements
- Xilinx, Inc. – numerous equity investments in strategic companies
- Qorvo, Inc. – $25 million investment in Cavendish Kinetics, with option to acquire the company
- Bio One Capital Pte Ltd. – represent a subsidiary of EDB Investments, the equity investment arm of the Singapore Development Board, in connection with its investments in multiple companies
- Accuray Incorporated — numerous equity investments in medical technology companies
- Prime Focus World – represent global entertainment services company (visual effects and stereo 3D conversion to major studios) in connection with $53 million investment by Macquarie Capital
- Vision Capital – numerous venture capital investments
- St. Jude Medical – numerous equity investments in medical device and medical technology companies
- GE Medical Systems – numerous equity investments in medical device and medical technology companies and related distribution agreements
- Broadlane, Inc. – convertible preferred and common stock financing
- Cadence Design Systems – numerous equity investments in strategic companies
- Rustic Canyon Partners – numerous venture capital investments
- Trinity Ventures – Series D Preferred Stock investment in Jobster
- Mobility Network Systems – Series B and Series C Preferred Stock financings
- Àccom, Inc. – a public company – private equity financing and a private convertible debt financing
Selected Public Financing Transactions
Certicom, Inc., a Canadian encryption technology company
- a simultaneous Canadian and Nasdaq public offering on Form F-10
- a simultaneous Canadian public offering and US private offering
Leasing Solutions, Inc., a lessor of computer and communications equipment
- LSI’s initial public offering of its common stock
- LSI’s secondary (follow-on) public offering of its common stock
Building Materials Holding Corporation – secondary (follow-on) offering of its common stock
Restructuring/Recapitalizations
- Gryphon Investors – Sale of Celerity Group and recapitalization of Kinetics Systems
- Building Materials Holding Corporation – Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization
Start-Up Companies
- Workspot, Inc. (virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI))
- Broadlane, Inc. (e-commerce healthcare supplies marketplace)
- Mobility Network Systems, Inc. (wireless technology)
- eCash Technologies, Inc. (electronic cash company)
- Alventive, Inc. (e-engineering design integration)
Other Contract Negotiation
Allergan, Inc.
- Collaboration agreement and co-promotion agreement with MAP Pharmaceuticals relating to acute migraine drug
- License and collaboration agreement and discovery alliance agreement with Molecular Partners relating to pharmaceutical products for retinal diseases
Accuray Incorporated
- Strategic alliance agreement with Siemens
- License agreement with CyberHeart
GE Healthcare (formerly GE Medical Systems)
- A production agreement for an amorphous silicon flat panel X-ray imaging detector with EG&G
- A distributor agreement for hardware and software products to aid mammography screening process with R2 Technology
- An operating agreement with Neoforma.com
Tenet Healthcare Corporation – formation of a joint venture with Ventro Corporation to create business-to-business e-commerce marketplace for the healthcare supply industry (Broadlane)
MTC Holdings/Marine Terminals Corporation – various joint ventures