Michael Dorf is a partner in the Mergers & Acquisitions practice.

He has extensive experience in domestic and cross-border public and private M&A transactions, carve-outs, venture capital financings, strategic investments and joint ventures.

He has represented public and private companies, private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds and corporate venture capital investors in the technology, biotechnology, renewable energy, consumer products and other industries.

M&A and Joint Venture Transactions

• Volta Inc. in its acquisition by Shell USA, Inc.
• SAP and Qualtrics International in the carve-out of Qualtrics from SAP and Qualtrics’ initial public offering raising $1.55 billion and concurrent $670 million private placements, and SAP its subsequent $12.5 billion sale of Qualtrics to Silver Lake
• VMware in several transactions, including its acquisitions of Mesh7, SaltStack, Datrium, Octarine Labs, Shavlik Technologies and Cetas Software
• Salesforce.com in several transactions, including its acquisition of Acumen Solutions, its $1.35 billion acquisition of ClickSoftware, its $2.8 billion acquisition of Demandware, and its acquisitions of MapAnything, Quip, SteelBrick, Kerensen Consulting (France), Sequence and Toopher, and smaller acquihire transactions
• NIC Inc. in its $2.3 billion acquisition by Tyler Technologies
• Vontier Corporation in its acquisition of DRB Systems, LLC from affiliates of New Mountain Capital
• Amyris in several transactions, including its $350 million sale and licensing of certain of its cosmetic ingredients to Givaudan, its joint venture with actress Tia Mowry in the launch of haircare line 4U by Tia, its biodiesel and biojet joint venture and convertible note financing with an affiliate of Total S.A., its zero-calorie, nature-based, fermented Reb M sweetener joint venture with Ingredion, the disposition of its Brazil production facility to, and the establishment of a manufacturing partnership with, DSM, its acquisitions of Beauty Labs International Limited, MenoLabs and OLIKA, and several other commercial transactions
• Local Bounti Corporation in its acquisition of Hollandia Produce Group (Pete’s)
• WinWire Technologies in its sale to an affiliate of Sverica Capital Management LP
• Pushpay Holdings Limited in its acquisitions of Church Community Builder, LLC and Resi Media LLC
• CMC Biologics in its (i) sale to Asahi Glass and (ii) acquisition of the ICOS biologics contract manufacturing business of Eli Lilly
• IPVALUE Management in its sale to Vector Capital and in several patent portfolio acquisitions
• Pickett Family in the sale of CytoSport to Hormel Foods
• Netsil in its acquisition by Nutanix
• Leyard Optoelectronic (PRC) in its acquisition of Planar Systems
• Cowen, as financial advisor in several transactions, including to (i) Zymergen in its sale to Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, (ii) La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company in its sale to Innoviva, (iii) Priority Technology Holdings in its acquisition of Finxera Holdings, (iv) Akcea Therapeutics in its merger with Ionis Pharmaceuticals, (v) Spark Therapeutics in its acquisition by The Roche Group, (vi) Dialog Semiconductor PLC in its acquisition of Creative Chips GmbH and (vii) Intermolecular in its sale to Merck KGaA
• Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as financial advisor in several transactions, including to Coherent in its acquisition by Lumentum and topping bids by MKS Instruments and II-VI, and to Salesforce.com in its acquisitions of Tableau Software and MuleSoft
• BTIG, as financial advisor to (i) the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Great Ajax in its sale to Ellington Financial, (ii) Support.com in its merger with Greenidge Generation Holdings, (iii) Athena Technology Acquisition Corp. in its business combination agreement Heliogen and (iv) Shift Technologies in its acquisition of assets from Fair Financial Corp.
• Tech+IP Advisory, as financial advisor to BlackBerry in its proposed patent sale to Catapult IP Innovations
• Dean Bradley Osborne Partners, as financial advisor to Stantec in its acquisition of MWH Global
• Intuit in several transactions, including its acquisitions of PayCycle, Electronic Clearing House, Acrede Technology Group Holdings Limited (Jersey) and PaySuite Limited (U.K.)
• Francisco Partners in several transactions, including its (i) acquisition of the Source Photonics business unit of MRV Communications, (ii) disposition of Source Photonics to a private equity consortium led by Redview Capital and Asia-IO, (iii) sale of majority control of Landmark Health Services to General Atlantic, (iv) acquisition of Quantros, (v) acquisition of QuadraMed, (vi) acquisition of the Webtrends business of NetIQ, (vii) acquisition through Electrical Components International of the Wire Harness Business of Viasystems Group, (viii) acquisition of Ex Libris Ltd. (Israel), (ix) acquisition from Elsevier of Endeavor Information Systems and the restructuring of Endeavor and Ex Libris to form Ex Libris Group, (x) sale of Ex Libris Group to Leeds Equity Partners, (xi) sale of EF Johnson Technologies to JVC Kenwood and (xii) sale of Grass Valley to Belden
• QuadraMed, a Francisco Partners portfolio company, in its (i) sale to N. Harris Computer, a subsidiary of Constellation Software, (ii) divestiture of its QuadraMed Quantim subsidiary to Nuance Communications and (iii) acquisition of NCR’s Healthcare Solutions Business
• Sybase in several transactions, including its (i) $5.8 billion sale to SAP, (ii) acquisition of Extended Systems, (iii) acquisition of AvantGo, (iv) acquisition of Mobile365, (v) acquisition of XcelleNet, (vi) exchange offer for New Era of Networks and (vii) acquisitions of several private companies
• Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (Israel) in its acquisition of Jazz Technologies
• Sun Microsystems in several transactions, including its acquisition of Cobalt Networks and its acquisitions of several private companies

Venture Capital and Minority Investments

• Qatar Investment Authority in several venture capital and private equity investments, including its (i) Series E investment in Uber, (ii) Series F and Series G investments in Urban Compass, (iii) Series H and Series I investments in Social Finance and de-SPAC transaction between SoFi Technologies and Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp V, (iv) co-investment in the syndication by Blackstone of its equity investment in a consortium formed to acquire The Ultimate Software Group, (v) co-investment with Silver Lake in PaySimple Holdings, (vi) backstop commitments to provide Senior Unsecured Bridge financing and purchase Senior Unsecured Notes in connection with the financing of RegionalCare Hospital Partners’ acquisition of LifePoint Health, (vii) Series D investment in GRAIL, (viii) Series B investment in Thrive Earlier Detection, (ix) Series C-1 investment in Praxis Precision Medicines, (x) co-investment with Blackstone Life Sciences in its acquisition from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals of a portion of its royalty interests and commercial milestone payments in respect of global sales of inclisiran, (xi) co-investment with Blackstone Life Sciences in its acquisition from Reata Pharmaceuticals of a portion of its global sales of Bardoxolone and an equity interest in Reata, (xii) equity commitment to Brookfield Asset Management to fund an issuer self-tender by Brookfield Property Partners LP., (xiii) Series F investment in QuantumScape Corporation and de-SPAC transaction between QuantumScape and Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp, (xiv) co-investment alongside Blackstone in Precision Medicine Group, (xv) Series A investment in Pride Parent (Paycor), (xvi) Series B investment in HiberCell, (xvii) Series B investment in Bright Peak Therapeutics, (xviii) partnership investment in SFJ Pharmaceuticals XII L.P., a partnership formed between Nektar Therapeutics and SFJ Pharmaceuticals for the co-development of a Bempeg for treatment of metastatic melanoma and head and neck cancers, (xix) Series C investment in OncoResponse, Inc., (xx) Series B investment in PepGen, (xxi) convertible note investment in Eat Just, (xxii) PIPE investment in dMY Technology Group IV to finance its de-SPAC transaction with Planet Labs, (xxiii) co-investment alongside Centricus Launch I LP in Relativity Space, (xxiv) Series B investment in Sionna Therapeutics, (xxv) Series C investment in Senda Biosciences, (xxvi) term loan, revenue interest financing and common equity investment in BioXcel Therapeutics, (xxvii) Series D investment in RayzeBio, (xxviii) private equity investment with Providence Equity Partners in Peter Chernin’s North Road Company, (xxix) Series E investment in Innovaccer, (xxx) Series A-1 investment in iECURE, (xxxi) Series B investment in Alltrna and (xxxii) Series D investment in Ascend Elements
• Pilot.com in connection with its Series C investment from Sequoia Capital and its Series C-1 investment from Bezos Expeditions and Whale Rock Capital
• Price f(x) AG in in its $65 million Series C financing led by Apax Digital, the growth equity fund of Apax Partners
• Prescient in its recapitalization and several rounds of equity and convertible note financing
• Copia Global in several rounds of equity and convertible note financing
• Salesforce.com in several investments, including its (i) Series D investments in InsideSales, (ii) Series B and Series C investments in Apttus and (iii) Series G investment in MuleSoft
• Francisco Partners in various venture capital investments including its investments in Landmark Health Services and Avalon Health Services
• BNP Paribas’ Energy Transition Capital Investment group in its (i) Series F investment in Aquion Energy, (ii) Series D investment in Stem and (iii) Series B investment in Ridecell
• Passport Capital and Nimble Ventures in their investments in Hortonworks and Just Fabulous and several other companies
• Anglo Platinum Marketing Limited in several transactions, including its investments in its convertible note investment in Greyrock Energy, several rounds of equity and convertible note investments in Primus Power and its convertible note investment in United Hydrogen, and the restructuring and spinoff of its investment portfolio to AP Ventures
• Hospira in its convertible bond financing and restructured biosimilar commercialization agreement with Celltrion Healthcare (Korea)
• GE Oil & Gas in its venture capital investment in Venture Global LNG, and GE Ventures in the disposition of its venture capital investment in Avitas
• ANI Technologies Private Limited in the sale of its Series I Preference Shares to SIMI Pacific Pte Ltd, an affiliate of Softbank Internet and Media, and certain investors
• Bpifrance in its investment in and recapitalization of ACCO Semiconductor

Awards & Accolades

• Recognized by Chambers USA 2022 as a leading lawyer in Corporate/M&A – Northern California
• Recognized by Lawdragon Inc. as one of 500 Leading Dealmakers in America in 2021 and 2022
• Michael has been cited in Who’s Who Legal: Corporate – M&A and Governance, and has been recognized as one of the leading lawyers in the Bay Area by Bay Area Lawyer magazine 

Speaking Engagements

• Michael is a frequent speaker and panelist, including at several Practising Law Institute programs, Transaction Advisors M&A Conferences, Daily Journal’s Western M&A/Private Equity Forum, Mergermarket’s Technology Forum, Thomson Reuters Practical Law, and has been a guest lecturer at Berkeley, Columbia and Stanford Law Schools.

Publications

• Co-Author, USA Chapter for the inaugural issue of Chambers’ Technology M&A Global Practice Guide (2021)
• Co-author, “Private Mergers and Acquisitions in the United States,” Thomson Reuters Practical Law (2018)