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Denny Kwon

Partner

Life sciences | Mergers and acquisitions | Technology |

Recognized as a notable practitioner for US M&A

IFLR1000

Profile details

About Denny Kwon

Denny brings 25 years of experience representing companies on their most important M&A and other strategic transactions, including acquisitions and sales of public and private companies, strategic investments, joint ventures and purchases or divestitures of businesses or product lines.

Denny regularly advises clients on strategic transactions in the technology and life sciences sectors and has become a trusted advisor to some of the most active acquirers in the technology industry. His broad experience includes the acquisition of public and private companies, divisions, and other assets structured as mergers, stock purchases, asset purchases, acqui-hires, mergers of equals, joint ventures, spinoffs, strategic investments, leveraged buy-outs, going-private transactions, tender offers, unsolicited offers and proxy contests.

In addition to his US-based practice, Denny has worked on numerous complex, cross-border M&A transactions, including those involving companies in East Asia, Europe, India, Israel, Canada and Southeast Asia.

Recent work

  • Pharmacyclics on its $21 billion acquisition by AbbVie.
  • Astellas on its $3 billion acquisition of Audentes.
  • MuleSoft on its $6.5 billion acquisition by Salesforce.
  • AppDynamics on its $3.7 billion acquisition by Cisco Systems.
  • McAfee on its $7.7 billion acquisition by Intel.
  • 3PAR on its original agreement to be acquired by Dell for $1.7 billion acquisition, on the unsolicited acquisition proposals from Hewlett-Packard and on its $2.4 billion acquisition by Hewlett-Packard.
  • LanzaTech on its $1.7 billion de-SPAC transaction.
  • Flix on its acquisition of Greyhound Lines from FirstGroup.

Buy-Side Representations in Public Company Transactions

  • MaxLinear on its $700 million acquisition of Exar.
  • Coherent on its $942 million acquisition of ROFIN-SINAR Technologies.
  • Gilead Sciences on its $510 million acquisition of YM Biosciences.
  • Total on its $1.4 billion negotiated tender offer to acquire 60% of the outstanding shares of SunPower.
  • Microchip Technology on its $939 million acquisition of Standard Microsystems; $394 million acquisition of Supertex and $300 million acquisition of Silicon Storage Technology through a go-shop process and subsequent competitive bidding process versus Cerberus Capital Management.
  • Seagate Technology on its $374 million acquisition of Xyratex.

Sell-Side Representations in Public Company Acquisitions

  • OmniVision Technologies on its $1.9 billion acquisition by Hua Capital Management, CITIC Capital and GoldStone Investment.
  • Astex Pharmaceuticals on its $866 million acquisition by Otsuka Pharmaceutical.
  • Isilon Systems on its $2.5 billion acquisition by EMC.
  • 3Com on its $3.3 billion acquisition by Hewlett-Packard.
  • Varian on its $1.5 billion acquisition by Agilent Technologies.

Buy-Side Representations in Private Company Acquisitions

  • Alphabet on more than 30 acquisitions, including its $3.2 billion acquisition of Nest Labs; and $555 million acquisition of Dropcam.
  • ServiceNow on more than 15 acquisitions.
  • Salesforce on seven acquisitions, including its $700 million acquisition of Krux.
  • Numerous other public and private companies on their acquisitions, including BloomReach, E2open, ForeScout Technologies, Instacart, MINDBODY, MongoDB, Mozilla, Micron Technology, MuleSoft, NETGEAR, Nutanix, Palo Alto Networks, Quotient Technology, Talend, Zscaler, and Zynga.

Sell-Side Representations in Private Company Acquisitions

  • Velocloud on its acquisition by VMware.
  • Cyence on its $275 million acquisition by Guidewire Software.
  • Silego Technology on its acquisition by Dialog Semiconductor for up to $306.4 million.
  • Recommind on its $165 million acquisition by OpenText.
  • Ravello Systems on its acquisition by Oracle.
  • Vormetric on its $400 million acquisition by Thales.
  • Accel Partners (lead investor) on PayPal's $800 million acquisition of Braintree.
  • hybris on its > $1 billion acquisition by SAP.
  • iWatt on its acquisition by Dialog Semiconductor for up to $345 million.
  • Calistoga Pharmaceuticals on its acquisition by Gilead Sciences for up to $600 million.
  • CoreValve on its acquisition by a healthcare technology company for up to $850 million.

Private Equity Transactions

  • Capsilon on its recapitalization and investment by Francisco Partners.
  • E2open on its $273 million acquisition by Insight Venture Partners.
  • Aicent (a TA Associates portfolio company) on its $290 million acquisition by Syniverse; and on its recapitalization and investment by TA Associates.
  • Service Repair Solutions (a Warburg Pincus portfolio company) on its acquisition by Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.
  • Skullcandy in connection with its recapitalization and investment by Goode Partners.

Qualifications

Education

  • New York University School of Law
    • J.D., 1999
  • Dartmouth College
    • B.A., 1996

Bar Admissions

  • California
  • New York