Fenwick & West LLP represented Cisco Systems, Inc. in its recently announced acquisitions of the business of The Linksys Group, Inc., of Irvine, California, and SignalWorks, Inc., of Mountain View, California. The acquisition of Linksys, the leading provider of home networking products, marks Cisco's entry into the fast-growing consumer networking market. The transaction values Linksys at approximately $500 million of Cisco stock. SignalWorks, a developer of advanced software that improves the clarity of IP telephony, will be acquired for approximately $13.5 million of Cisco stock.
Firm Chair Gordon Davidson leads Fenwick's overall representation of Cisco Systems. The transaction teams were led by Doug Cogen, Co-Chair of the Firm's Mergers & Acquisitions Group. Corporate partner Jeff Vetter, Tax partner Walt Raineri, Intellectual Property partners Lisa Kenkel and Larry Granatelli, and Employee Benefits partner Scott Spector were the principal partners on the transactions.
The Linksys transaction team included partners Mark Ostrau, Brad Lewis, Carlyn Clause and Garry Grossman, of counsel Valarie McInroy, corporate associates Craig Menden, John Park, Andrew Schultheis, Keith Larson and David Barry, IP associates Henry Su, Diana Lock, Catherine Manley, Ines Gonzalez, Karen Kitterman and Devin Gensch, tax associates Ward Connolly and Catherine Thuresson, employee benefits associates Darci Winvick and Mona Clee, and senior paralegal Maryann Fratto. The SignalWorks team included corporate associates Andrew Luh, John Shields, Melissa Trousdale and David Barry, IP associates Greg Sato, Chris Joslyn and Karen Kitterman, tax associate Catherine Thuresson, employee benefits associate Darci Winvick, and senior paralegal Maryann Fratto.
To learn more about these transactions, please visit:
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/corp_032003.html
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/corp_031903.html
Inquiries related to the Linksys deal may be directed to M&A Chair and Corporate partner Doug Cogen at 415.875.2409 (dcogen@fenwick.com) and inquiries related to the SignalWorks deal may be directed to Corporate partner Jeff Vetter at 415.335.7631 (jvetter@fenwick.com).