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

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

He has represented public and private companies, private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds and corporate venture capital investors in the technology, media, telecommunications, biotechnology, health care, renewable energy, consumer products and other industries. In addition, Michael represents portfolio companies of private equity clients, handling day-to-day legal activities, add-on acquisitions, and other general corporate work.

• Salesforce.com in several transactions, including  its $2.8 billion acquisition of Demandware, its acquisitions of Quip, SteelBrick, Kerensen Consulting (France), Sequence and Toopher, smaller acquihire transactions, and its venture capital investments in several private companies
• Amyris in several transactions, including its biodiesel and biojet joint venture and convertible note financing with an affiliate of Total S.A., the disposition of its Brazil production facility to, and the establishment of a long term manufacturing partnership with, DSM, its acquisition of the assets of Draths, and several other commercial transactions
• 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) investments in Landmark Health and Avalon Healthcare Solutions, (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
• CMC Biologics in its (i) sale to Asahi Glass and (ii) acquisition of the ICOS biologics contract manufacturing business of Eli Lilly
• STMicroelectronics N.V. in its (i) sale of Numonyx Holding B.V., a joint venture between STMicroelectronics, Intel and Francisco Partners, to Micron Technology, and (ii) divestiture of substantially all assets of The Portland Group to NVIDIA
• VMware in its acquisition of Shavlik Technologies and Cetas Software
• Intuit in several transactions, including its acquisitions of PayCycle, Electronic Clearing House, Acrede Technology Group Holdings Limited (Jersey) and PaySuite Limited (U.K.)
• Passport Capital and Nimble Ventures in its investments in Hortonworks and Just Fabulous and several other companies
• IPVALUE Management in its sale to Vector Capital
• Pickett Family in the sale of CytoSport to Hormel Foods
• Anglo Platinum Marketing Limited in several transactions, including its strategic partnership with Shell Oil, Toyota and Honda to develop hydrogen refueling stations in Northern California, and its investments in several private companies
• Dean Bradley Osborne Partners LLC, as financial advisor to Stantec in its acquisition of MWH Global
• Leyard Optoelectronic (PRC) in its acquisition of Planar Systems
• Qatar Investment Authority in its Series E investment in Uber Technologies
• Hospira in its convertible bond financing and restructured biosimilar commercialization agreement with Celltrion Healthcare (Korea)
• 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
• White Oak Resources LLC in a joint venture transaction with Alliance Resource Partners, L.P., consisting of (i) a recapitalization, (ii) a preferred equity investment, (iii) the acquisition and leaseback of coal reserves and surface rights, (iv) a coal handling and services agreement, and (v) a backstop equipment financing facility
• Sun Microsystems in several transactions, including its acquisition of Cobalt Networks and its acquisitions of several private companies
• Webtrends, a Francisco Partners portfolio company, in several transactions, including its (i) acquisition of Transpond, (ii) acquisition of the assets of WideMile, (iii) disposition of the assets of its WebPosition product line to a management-led group, and (iv) acquisition of ClickShift
• Terna Energy USA Holding Corporation in its sale of four wind energy projects to an affiliate of Sany Electric
• Vector Capital in its acquisition of a minority stake in, its unsolicited proposal to acquire, and its agreement to co-invest equally with Francisco Partners in the negotiated acquisition of, WatchGuard Technologies, and its terminated acquisition of BroadVision
• Technology Crossover Ventures in the restructuring of its investment in RJ O’Brien
• Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (Israel) in its acquisition of Jazz Technologies
• Spansion in its acquisition of Saifun Semiconductors Ltd. (Israel)
• Cell Genesys in its sale to BioSante
• Electrical Components International, a Francisco Partners portfolio company, in its acquisition of the Noma Wire and Cable Assembly Business of GenTek Inc.
• LANDesk Software, a Vector Capital portfolio company, in its sale to Avocent
• Business Objects in its acquisition of Inxight Software
• NuView in its acquisition by Brocade Communication Systems
• Corio in its acquisition by IBM

Awards & Accolades

• Recognized by Lawdragon Inc., 2021 as one of 500 Leading Dealmakers in America
• Recognized byChambers USA 2020 as a leading lawyer in Corporate/M&A – Northern California
• 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, panelist and author, including at several Practising Law Institute programs, Daily Journal’s Western M&A/Private Equity Forum, Mergermarket’s Technology Forum, Thomson Reuters Practical Law, and guest speaker at Berkeley and Columbia Law Schools.
• “Primer on Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs),” presented to major investment banks (December and July 2020)
• “CVC as a critical source of venture funding,” breakout session facilitator at the 1st Annual Shearman & Sterling Corporate Venture Investor Summit (November 12, 2020)
• “Cross border joint ventures: Exit and buyout provisions,” panelist at the Transaction Advisors M&A Conference at Wharton San Francisco (November 2020)

Publications

• Co-Author, “Private mergers and acquisitions in the United States,” Thomson Reuters Practical Law (2018).