David K. Michaels

650-335-7258
dmichaels@fenwick.com
Practice Area Lead
SPACs
Partner
Corporate

David K.
Michaels

David K.
Michaels

David K.
Michaels

Partner
Corporate
Practice Area Lead
SPACs

David has over 35 years of experience representing companies across a variety of industries in mergers and acquisitions, public and private debt financings, and other strategic and financing transactions.

David offers strategic counseling in a wide range of complex transactions and acquisitions, including public company mergers and tender offers, private company acquisitions and joint ventures. His M&A experience includes a number of cross-border transactions involving clients based in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and includes transactions in the life sciences, software, hardware, semiconductor and digital entertainment industries. He also advises companies and financial parties in structured capital markets transactions, including convertible debt offerings, equity derivatives, PIPE financings, and reverse merger and SPAC transactions, as well as credit facilities and other debt financings. David also counsels companies and their boards on corporate governance and shareholder activist matters.

Sell-Side M&A Transactions

  • Chinook in its $3.5B acquisition by Novartis
  • DICE Therapeutics in its $2.4B acquisition by Eli Lilly
  • Envoy Technologies in its acquisition by Blink Mobility
  • Jam City it its spin-off of Plai Labs
  • UserTesting in its acquisition by Thoma Bravo and Sunstone Partners
  • Clif Bar & Company in its $2.9B acquisition by Mondelez
  • Amunix in its $1.2B acquisition by Sanofi
  • Castlight Health in its $370M merger with Vera Whole Health
  • Kareo in its merger with PatientPop to form Tebra
  • ​Velo3D in its combination agreement with JAWS Spitfire SPAC
  • Zerto in its $374M acquisition by HPE
  • Doctor on Demand in its merger with Grand Rounds
  • Glu Mobile in its $2.4B acquisition by Electronic Arts
  • Special Committee of 58.com Board of Directors in going-private transaction
  • LakePharma in its acquisition by Curia
  • Adesto in its $500M acquisition by Dialog Semiconductor
  • Dermira in its $1.1B acquisition by Eli Lilly
  • ​Audentes Therapeutics in its $3B acquisition by Astellas Pharma
  • ​Shutterfly in its $2.7B acquisition by Apollo Global Management
  • Cray in its $1.3B acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise
  • Loxo Oncology in its $8B acquisition by Eli Lilly
  • Corium in its $504M acquisition by Gurnet Point Capital
  • King Digital in its $5.9B acquisition by Activision Blizzard
  • Giant Interactive Group in its $3B going-private acquisition by a private-equity backed consortium
  • Callidus Software in its $2.4B acquisition by SAP
  • Infoblox in its $1.6B acquisition by Vista Equity Partners
  • Spreadtrum Communications in its $1.78B acquisition by Tsinghua Unigroup
  • Grapeshot in its acquisition by Oracle
  • Plangrid in its $875M acquisition by Autodesk
  • Ocular Sciences in its $1.2B acquisition by The Cooper Companies
  • eHi Car Services (China) in its $930M going-private acquisition by a sponsor-backed consortium (counsel to special committee)
  • RAE Systems in its going-private acquisition by Vector Capital
  • Interwoven in its $775M acquisition by Autonomy
  • Connetics in its $640M acquisition by Steifel Laboratories
  • Silicon Image in its $600M acquisition by Lattice Semiconductor
  • ShoreTel in its $430M acquisition by Mitel
  • Dragonplay in its $100M acquisition by Bally Technologies
  • Peplin in its $287M acquisition by LEO Pharma

Buy-Side M&A Transactions

  • Neoleukin Therapeutics in its acquisition of Neurogene Inc.
  • Vast in its acquisition of Launcher
  • Fortinet in its acquisitions of Zonefox and Bradford Networks
  • Cloudera in its $5.2B merger of equals with Hortonworks
  • Dexcom in its acquisition of TypeZero Technologies
  • Adesto in its acquisition of Echelon
  • Uptake in its acquisition of Asset Performance Technologies
  • Nexon in its acquisition of Pixelberry Studios and in a number of investment transactions
  • Model N in its acquisition of Revitas
  • Symantec in its $4.65B acquisition of Blue Coat Systems, its $2.3B acquisition of LifeLock and in numerous other related M&A and financing transactions
  • Shanghai Giant Network Technology and consortium of investors in its $4.4B acquisition of Caesars Interactive Entertainment's Playtika
  • KalVista Pharmaceuticals in its majority share purchase agreement of Carbylan
  • FanDuel in its acquisition of AlphaDraft and numberFire
  • Singapore Telecommunications in its $810M acquisition of Trustwave and $321M acquisition of Amobee
  • Shutterfly in its acquisition of MyPublisher and BorrowLenses
  • Electronic Arts in its $680M acquisition of JAMDAT Mobile, and a number of other acquisitions for EA
  • Flextronics International in its $2.4B acquisition of Dii Group, its $725M acquisition of Nortel Networks and dozens of other acquisitions for Flextronics

David has played a lead role in a number of capital markets and debt financing transactions.

Capital Markets and Debt Financing Transactions

  • 144A convertible and high yield debt offerings by a number of issuers, including Adesto, Alteryx, Amyris, Bauzun, Bill.com, Cepheid, Chegg, Cloudfare, Coinbase, Concur, Corium, Dermira, Dexcom, DocuSign, Flextronics, Fortinet, GoPro, Impinj, Peloton, Proofpoint, Redfin, ServiceNow, Shockwave Medical, Shutterfly, Snap, Symantec, Uber, Upwork, Vocera, Workday and Ziprecruiter, and representation of initial purchasers in offerings by Impinj and Fluidigm; many of these transactions included equity derivative arrangements
  • Cisco Systems in public debt offerings totaling $30.25B
  • Public debt offerings for Agilent, Intuit and Symantec
  • Syndicated credit facilities for Agilent, Airbnb, Chegg, Cisco Systems, Dermira, Dropbox, Diamond Foods, Fitbit, Flextronics, GoPro, Intuit, Jam City, Katerra, LendingClub, Model N, Peloton, Stripe, Symantec, Turn Networks, VeriSign and Workday

David also has significant experience with a wide range of derivative transactions.

Sell-Side M&A Transactions

  • Chinook in its $3.5B acquisition by Novartis
  • DICE Therapeutics in its $2.4B acquisition by Eli Lilly
  • Envoy Technologies in its acquisition by Blink Mobility
  • Jam City it its spin-off of Plai Labs
  • UserTesting in its acquisition by Thoma Bravo and Sunstone Partners
  • Clif Bar & Company in its $2.9B acquisition by Mondelez
  • Amunix in its $1.2B acquisition by Sanofi
  • Castlight Health in its $370M merger with Vera Whole Health
  • Kareo in its merger with PatientPop to form Tebra
  • ​Velo3D in its combination agreement with JAWS Spitfire SPAC
  • Zerto in its $374M acquisition by HPE
  • Doctor on Demand in its merger with Grand Rounds
  • Glu Mobile in its $2.4B acquisition by Electronic Arts
  • Special Committee of 58.com Board of Directors in going-private transaction
  • LakePharma in its acquisition by Curia
  • Adesto in its $500M acquisition by Dialog Semiconductor
  • Dermira in its $1.1B acquisition by Eli Lilly
  • ​Audentes Therapeutics in its $3B acquisition by Astellas Pharma
  • ​Shutterfly in its $2.7B acquisition by Apollo Global Management
  • Cray in its $1.3B acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise
  • Loxo Oncology in its $8B acquisition by Eli Lilly
  • Corium in its $504M acquisition by Gurnet Point Capital
  • King Digital in its $5.9B acquisition by Activision Blizzard
  • Giant Interactive Group in its $3B going-private acquisition by a private-equity backed consortium
  • Callidus Software in its $2.4B acquisition by SAP
  • Infoblox in its $1.6B acquisition by Vista Equity Partners
  • Spreadtrum Communications in its $1.78B acquisition by Tsinghua Unigroup
  • Grapeshot in its acquisition by Oracle
  • Plangrid in its $875M acquisition by Autodesk
  • Ocular Sciences in its $1.2B acquisition by The Cooper Companies
  • eHi Car Services (China) in its $930M going-private acquisition by a sponsor-backed consortium (counsel to special committee)
  • RAE Systems in its going-private acquisition by Vector Capital
  • Interwoven in its $775M acquisition by Autonomy
  • Connetics in its $640M acquisition by Steifel Laboratories
  • Silicon Image in its $600M acquisition by Lattice Semiconductor
  • ShoreTel in its $430M acquisition by Mitel
  • Dragonplay in its $100M acquisition by Bally Technologies
  • Peplin in its $287M acquisition by LEO Pharma

Buy-Side M&A Transactions

  • Neoleukin Therapeutics in its acquisition of Neurogene Inc.
  • Vast in its acquisition of Launcher
  • Fortinet in its acquisitions of Zonefox and Bradford Networks
  • Cloudera in its $5.2B merger of equals with Hortonworks
  • Dexcom in its acquisition of TypeZero Technologies
  • Adesto in its acquisition of Echelon
  • Uptake in its acquisition of Asset Performance Technologies
  • Nexon in its acquisition of Pixelberry Studios and in a number of investment transactions
  • Model N in its acquisition of Revitas
  • Symantec in its $4.65B acquisition of Blue Coat Systems, its $2.3B acquisition of LifeLock and in numerous other related M&A and financing transactions
  • Shanghai Giant Network Technology and consortium of investors in its $4.4B acquisition of Caesars Interactive Entertainment's Playtika
  • KalVista Pharmaceuticals in its majority share purchase agreement of Carbylan
  • FanDuel in its acquisition of AlphaDraft and numberFire
  • Singapore Telecommunications in its $810M acquisition of Trustwave and $321M acquisition of Amobee
  • Shutterfly in its acquisition of MyPublisher and BorrowLenses
  • Electronic Arts in its $680M acquisition of JAMDAT Mobile, and a number of other acquisitions for EA
  • Flextronics International in its $2.4B acquisition of Dii Group, its $725M acquisition of Nortel Networks and dozens of other acquisitions for Flextronics

David has played a lead role in a number of capital markets and debt financing transactions.

Capital Markets and Debt Financing Transactions

  • 144A convertible and high yield debt offerings by a number of issuers, including Adesto, Alteryx, Amyris, Bauzun, Bill.com, Cepheid, Chegg, Cloudfare, Coinbase, Concur, Corium, Dermira, Dexcom, DocuSign, Flextronics, Fortinet, GoPro, Impinj, Peloton, Proofpoint, Redfin, ServiceNow, Shockwave Medical, Shutterfly, Snap, Symantec, Uber, Upwork, Vocera, Workday and Ziprecruiter, and representation of initial purchasers in offerings by Impinj and Fluidigm; many of these transactions included equity derivative arrangements
  • Cisco Systems in public debt offerings totaling $30.25B
  • Public debt offerings for Agilent, Intuit and Symantec
  • Syndicated credit facilities for Agilent, Airbnb, Chegg, Cisco Systems, Dermira, Dropbox, Diamond Foods, Fitbit, Flextronics, GoPro, Intuit, Jam City, Katerra, LendingClub, Model N, Peloton, Stripe, Symantec, Turn Networks, VeriSign and Workday

David also has significant experience with a wide range of derivative transactions.

  • Intuit
  • Symantec

  • Intuit
  • Symantec

Recognition Recognition Recognition

Recognition Recognition Recognition

Recognition
Chambers USA

2021-2024

Chambers USA ranked David as one of the nation's leading lawyers in Capital Markets: Convertible Debt.

The Legal 500

2018-2019 & 2022-2023

Named among the top-ranking lawyers for M&A middle market transactions in the U.S.

Recognition
Chambers USA

2021-2024

Chambers USA ranked David as one of the nation's leading lawyers in Capital Markets: Convertible Debt.

The Legal 500

2018-2019 & 2022-2023

Named among the top-ranking lawyers for M&A middle market transactions in the U.S.