Gordon K. Davidson
Corporate
Gordon advises high technology companies, clean technology and life sciences companies. Gordy’s clients range from startups to Fortune 100 companies. He has worked on over 60 public offerings and has represented boards of directors, audit committees and executives in numerous special investigations.
He has also acted as lead counsel on over 100 mergers and acquisitions valued at more than $75B in the aggregate, including:
- $19B acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook
- $17B acquisition by VeriSign of Network Solutions
- $13B acquisition by Symantec of Veritas Software in 2005 and the sale of Veritas by Symantec in 2015
- $6.9B acquisition by Cisco Systems of Scientific-Atlanta
- $6.5B acquisition by Exodus Communications of GlobalCenter
- $4B merger of Spansion with Cypress Semiconductor
- $3.75B acquisition of SuccessFactors by SAP
- $3.4B acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe
- $3B acquisition of Giant Interactive Group by a private equity sponsor-backed consortium (counsel to special committee)
- $2.5B acquisition by VERITAS Software of Seagate Software
- $2.4B acquisition of Data Domain by EMC
- $1.78B acquisition of Spreadtrum Communications by Tsinghua Unigroup
- $1.4B acquisition of Elantec by Intersil
- $1.4B acquisition by Intuit of Digital Insight
- $1.2B acquisition of Ocular Sciences by The Cooper Companies
- $1B going-private acquisition of Zhaopin (China) by a private equity sponsor-backed consortium (counsel to special committee)
- $930M going-private acquisition of eHi Car Services' (China) by a private equity sponsor-backed consortium (counsel to special committee)
- Inducted into the Dealmaker Hall of Fame by Lawdragon (2023)
- "Corporate Lawyer of the Year" for the Silicon Valley by Best Lawyers (2009 and 2013)
- “Securities Lawyer of the Year” for the San Francisco Area by Best Lawyers (2010 and 2014)
- One of the 10 best corporate lawyers in California by California Lawyer magazine (August 2004)
- One of a dozen lawyers named to the AlwaysOn Power Players West list (2011)
- One of the Top 25 Biotech Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal (2011)
- One of the top 100 venture capital deal makers by Forbes magazine’s Midas List (2001 and 2004 – 2007)
- One of the top 100 lawyers in California by the Daily Journal (2012 – 2016)
- One of three leading lawyers in Silicon Valley by SuperLawyers magazine (2008)
- One of "100 People Who Changed Our World" by Upside magazine (October 2001)
- Named to the “Global Silicon Valley Hall of Fame” (2016)
Gordy "is one of the veterans of Silicon Valley. He is good at resolving conflicts and making peace when needed — he is brought in for those situations."