Technology, media and telecommunications companies are bringing innovations to market at an ever-increasing rate. New products, services, distribution channels and content generate unique business challenges. Companies and investors must address changing regulations, innovative business models that disrupt the status quo, technological advances and an increasing need for intellectual property protection.

By partnering with Shearman & Sterling, you will have access to a team of dedicated technology, media and telecommunications lawyers to provide strategic advice on capital raising, complex cross-border acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures and other collaborations, intellectual property rights, including trademark, copyright and patent, as well as dispute resolution.

Shearman & Sterling ‘s international platform has developed to serve the needs of global technology, media and telecommunications companies, as well as those companies looking to expand their business across borders. With offices located across the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, our lawyers are versed in meeting the needs of technology, media and telecommunications companies with global visions.

Mergers & Acquisitions

• salesforce.com | in its acquisition of ClickSoftware, MapAnything, Inc., and Demandware, Inc.
• VMware, Inc. | in its acquisition of Octarine Labs, Inc.
• Centina Systems, Inc. | in its acquisition by Ciena Corporation
• Verimatrix | in its $65 million acquisition of silicon IP and secure protocols assets by Rambus
• Empyrean Benefit Solutions, Inc. | in its acquisition by Securian Financial Group, Inc.
• Q Engineering, LLC | in its acquisition by Enverus
• Owlchemy Labs, Inc. | in its acquisition by Google, Inc.

Emerging Growth: Venture Capital Financings 

• Next Insurance | in its $250 million Series C financing
• salesforce.com | in its investments in InsideSales, Apttus, and MuleSoft
• Theatro Labs | in its $20 million Series C financing
• Eventus Systems | in its $10.5 million Series A financing, led by Jump Capital and LiveOak Venture Partners
• Decisio Health, Inc. | in its $13 million Series B financing led by GE Healthcare

Intellectual Property Transactions

• SQUARE, Inc. | on GDPR compliance and process playbooks relating to multiple data processing use cases
• Airbnb, Inc. | in connection with licensing agreements related to its rebranding and redesign of its products and marketing

Intellectual Property Litigation

• Elpida (current subsidiary of Micron Technology) | in an eight patent semiconductor memory litigation involving district court actions and an ITC investigation, which was successfully settled after summary determination briefing and prior to a hearing. Intellectual Ventures v. Elpida (D. Del., W.D. Wash., ITC)
• GNOME Foundation | secured a victory in a patent infringement suit filed by Rothschild Patent Imaging (RPI). In the walk-away settlement, GNOME received a release and covenant not to be sued for any patent held by RPI. In addition, the Shearman team secured a covenant and release on the Rothschild patent portfolio (more than 100 patents) for everyone in the world for the use of all open source software licenses (as approved by the Open Source Initiative). 

Financial Advisor Counsel

• BuildGroup LLC | in connection with its purchase of approximately 1.78 million shares of Series A preferred stock of Benefitfocus, Inc. (NASDAQ: BNFT) in a private placement for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $80 million
• Brentwood Associates | in its acquisitions of Credentials Solutions and Parchment
• Passport Capital | in connection with Overstock.com's registered direct offering of a $50 million warrant to purchase up to 1.25 million shares of Overstock common stock

Underwriters’ Counsel

• BofA Securities, Inc. and Piper Sandler & Co. | as sales agents in connection with the commencement of Akoustis Technologies, Inc.’s At-The-Market equity program to sell shares of its common stock, having an aggregate offering price of up to $50 million
• Cowen and Company, LLC and Needham & Company, LLC | as representatives of the underwriters, in connection with Adesto Technologies Corporation’s follow-on public offering of 6,700,000 shares of common stock. The net proceeds for the offering are intended to provide substantially all of the funding for Adesto’s acquisition of Echelon Corporation
• Citigroup, BofA Securities and J.P. Morgan | in connection with Omnicom Group Inc.’s $600 million offering of senior notes
• Barclays, BBVA, Mizuho Securities, RBC Capital Markets and TD Securities | in connection with American Tower Corporation’s offering of senior notes

FinTech Industry Experience

• Qatar Investment Authority | in its investment in SoFi
• Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and BAKKT Holdings | in connection with BAKKT’s formation and initial equity financing of $182.5 million from an investor syndicate. BAKKT will offer a federally regulated market for Bitcoin in order to transform Bitcoin into a trusted global currency with broad commercial usage
• Visa | in its acquisition of PlaySpan Inc.
• NASDAQ OMX Group | in its acquisition of the Investor Relations, Public Relations and Multimedia Solutions businesses of Thomson Reuters; on its acquisition of FTEN, Inc; in the creation of a joint venture with SharesPost, Inc. to form The NASDAQ Private Market LLC; in its joint bid, together with the Intercontinental Exchange, for NYSE Euronext
• Intuit Limited | in its acquisitions of several online and cloud-based payroll services companies, including PayCycle, Inc., Acrede Technology Group Holdings and PaySuite