PRIVATE EQUITY

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati provides counsel to financial sponsors across the complete spectrum of buyout and investment transactions, including:

  • Public company "take private" deals
  • Senior and mezzanine transaction financings
  • Restructurings and recapitalizations
  • Divisional spin-offs and carve outs
  • Private investments in public equity (PIPEs)
  • Private company buyouts
  • Growth and later-stage financings
  • Venture capital
  • Various portfolio company transactions

We represent a full range of financial sponsors, from some of the world's largest diversified private equity firms to mid-market industry-focused investment and buyout funds and earlier-stage investment firms.

Our private equity clients are sophisticated deal makers who demand creativity, flexibility, differentiated insight, and disciplined and nimble execution from their legal counsel. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's financial sponsor specialists are experienced in helping these clients navigate the rapidly moving and often highly competitive markets in which they participate to reach successful outcomes. Our approach to these engagements is driven by the needs of financial sponsors for actionable risk evaluation, downside protection strategies, tax-efficient structuring, and market intelligence.

The depth of our domain expertise in technology, life sciences, and clean tech and our long history representing the leading innovators in those industries give us unique insight into the market practices and key value drivers for transactions. This expertise enables us to bring sophistication to the difficult challenges of separating technology, intellectual property, personnel, and other assets and liabilities in carve-out transactions, as well as performing penetrating due-diligence analysis that supports, rather than confuses, business decisions.

We approach financial sponsor engagements with an interdisciplinary team that draws upon the firm's broad experience in capital markets and debt financing, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property and licensing, corporate governance, tax, employee benefits and compensation, and antitrust and other regulatory matters. In addition, our market-leading expertise in representing enterprises enables us to add value to our financial sponsor clients' investments after each deal is done.