Technology
“The firm is one of the best I have ever worked with. The lawyers are competent, fast and available 24/7.”
Chambers Global
Technology companies and investors increasingly require multi-disciplinary transactional, regulatory and governance solutions.
Building on our history of representing the world’s leading technology companies, Cleary Gottlieb’s technology team represents emerging and mature companies on critical aspects of their growth and on industry-shaping matters. We work with clients to find practical solutions in a constantly evolving environment, helping them overcome novel legal issues associated with innovation.
Our international technology team has experience successfully navigating these issues in the context of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategic alliances; capital markets and other financings; corporate governance; antitrust/competition proceedings; licensing and outsourcing arrangements; litigation and enforcement; and cybersecurity/privacy, among others.
Clients benefit from our track record across the technology landscape including digital platforms, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud solutions, digital assets and FinTech, digital health, gaming, semiconductors, social media, software, and telecoms.
We have a long history of working with regulators—benefitting from deep experience and insight gained from working closely with (and, when necessary, in opposing) the SEC, FTC, and DOJ—as well as assessing evolving legal risks under U.S., EU, and other global legal regimes, especially in regard to foreign investment review.
From venture capitalists and startups to established players, our diverse range of capabilities ensures efficiency and synergy among all relevant constituencies.
Notable Experience
We advise technology companies on pre-IPO planning, capital markets offerings, and life as a public company. Some examples include:
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GlobalFoundries in its $2.6 billion SEC-registered IPO.
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Pinterest in its $1.6 billion SEC-registered IPO.
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Google in over $15 billion of notes offerings, including its inaugural sustainability bond for $5.75 billion, the largest sustainability bond to date; and previously in its reorganization and creation of a new holding company, Alphabet.
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Qingci, mobile game developer and publisher, in its HK$1.02 billion IPO.
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LINE Corporation, a Japanese messaging app company, in its $1.1 billion SEC-registered IPO with concurrent Tokyo and NYSE listings.
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Selling shareholders in the $1.1 billion SEC-registered IPO of Tradeweb.
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Sabre Corporation, a leading technology provider to the global travel and tourism industry, in its $721 million SEC-registered IPO, listed on NASDAQ.
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itBit Trust Company (now Paxos Trust Company) in its Series B financing
We advise private equity, venture capital firms, and corporate, and strategic investors in a variety of domestic and cross-border transactions in the technology sector, such as:
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Synopsys, a global leader in semiconductor design and software, in its pending $35 billion acquisition of Ansys, an engineering and product design software firm.
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Synopsys in its strategic partnership with Intel that combines Synopsys’ proprietary electronic design automation tools and Intel’s proprietary Intel 3 and Intel 18A nodes to allow Intel’s foundry customers to gain access to industry-leading intellectual property and accelerate the development of chips.
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Atlassian in its acquisition of Orderly from K15t.
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OpenText in complicated licensing arrangements and complex asset divestitures related to its $1.62 billion acquisition of Dell EMC’s Enterprise Content Division, as well as the $2.275 billion sale of its application modernization and connectivity business to Rocket Software, a Bain Capital portfolio company; its acquisitions of Liaison Technologies and Guidance Software; its $1.165 billion acquisition of GXS Group; and its acquisition of customer experience and customer communications management software businesses from HP Inc.
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T-Mobile in its pending $4.4 billion acquisition of UScellular’s wireless operations and select spectrum assets.
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Brookfield in an agreement to acquire Scientific Games Corporation’s global lottery services and technology business for approximately $5.8 billion.
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Google in dozens of M&A deals, including its $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit; its $2.6 billion acquisition of Looker; its $1.1 billion smartphone transaction with HTC in Asia; all facets of its Alphabet reorganization; acquisitions of Socratic, Waze, Famebit, Orbitera, Motorola, and bebop; its $1 billion investment in SpaceX; and its sales of Terra Bella to Planet Labs, home business to Arris, and handset business to Lenovo.
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Juul Labs in a $12.8 billion investment by Altria Group; and in its subsequent FTC Part 3 administrative proceedings and private antitrust class actions in the Northern District of California.
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Lenovo Group Limited, the largest PC manufacturer worldwide, in its $2.1 billion acquisition of International Business Machines Corporation’s x86 server business.
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Lowe’s Companies in its acquisition of Boomerang Commerce’s retail analytics platform.
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Sony in its investments in Epic Games and in the acquisition of Gaikai, a leading interactive cloud-based gaming U.S. startup.
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Tech Data in its $6 billion sale to Apollo Global Management; and previously in its $2.6 billion acquisition of Avnet’s Technology Solutions business.
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Temasek Holdings in connection with the definitive agreement under which Dell, together with its owners, Michael S. Dell, founder, chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dell, MSD Partners and Silver Lake, will acquire EMC Corporation; its participation as a principal member of the buyer group in the going-private transaction of WuXi PharmaTech, valued at approximately $3.5 billion; and its $360 million equity co-investment alongside affiliates of Apollo Global Management and other co-investors in the acquisition of ADT and its merger with Protection 1, an entity previously acquired by the Apollo Funds.
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The Home Depot in its acquisition of BlackLocus, a provider of advanced, cloud-based software enabling online retailers to identify opportunities for competitive pricing advantage.
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TPG in connection with its acquisition of RCN and Grande Communications, both providers of cable television, internet and telephone services, for an aggregate enterprise value of $2.25 billion.
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Warburg Pincus in its acquisition of A-LIGN Compliance and Security Inc and Infoblox.
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Western Digital in its $19 billion acquisition of SanDisk, and previous acquisitions of Amplidata NV, sTec and Virident Systems.
We provide holistic advice to key technology players facing emerging and challenging conditions, including:
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Broadcom, as plaintiff, in a victory over Qualcomm in a monopolization suit involving exclusionary conduct in standard setting—The Third Circuit opinion is the leading case in this area.
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Huawei Technologies in a referral proceeding to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) originating from German litigation on standard essential patents before the Düsseldorf Regional Court against ZTE Corporation.
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Google in defeating a shareholder class action arising out of the company’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility, the largest-ever deal in our client’s history.
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Teladoc as a plaintiff in winning a landmark preliminary injunction against the Texas Medical Board (represented by the Texas AG), preventing the implementation of a rule that would have ended telehealth in Texas.
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The U.S. Nortel estate in a groundbreaking crossborder trial in Wilmington and Toronto courts concerning a dispute with Nortel’s Canadian and European estates regarding the allocation of asset sale proceeds and billions of dollars of intercompany claims.
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T-Mobile US and Deutsche Telekom in T-Mobile US’s merger with Sprint Corporation for a total combined enterprise value of $146 billion, and in the federal court trial brought by a coalition of state attorneys.
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The Walt Disney Company (EU antitrust) and 21st Century Fox (U.S. antitrust) in Disney’s announced $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox after the spinoff of certain businesses.
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Leading global technology companies in antitrust investigations by the US DOJ, FTC, and state Attorneys General; the European Commission; the UK’s CMA; China’s SAMR; and other authorities.
Publications
Events
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November 12, 2024
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October 22, 2024
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October 18, 2024
The Digital Way and Legal Tools to Foster a More Social Market