Rich Mullen
Partner
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Experienced Dealmaker
Rich is a strategic advisor who counsels boards of directors and management teams on M&A and other transformative transactions. He has significant experience in the technology and life sciences industries, having structured and negotiated hundreds of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, tender and exchange offers, asset acquisitions, divestitures and business carve-outs, equity investments, and joint ventures and other strategic partnerships.
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Advisor for Companies’ Most Challenging Issues
In addition to M&A, Rich advises boards of directors and management teams on their most challenging issues, including shareholder engagement and activism, proxy contests, unsolicited acquisition proposals and other challenges to corporate control, management succession planning, and sensitive corporate governance matters.
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Recognized Leader
With a strong reputation representing leading technology companies, Rich is ranked as a leading Corporate/M&A lawyer by Chambers USA and is Head of the firm's M&A practice.
Rich Mullen is a partner in the San Francisco office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he leads the firm's M&A practice. Rich advises public and private companies, and their boards of directors and management teams, in a wide range of strategic transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, tender and exchange offers, asset acquisitions, divestitures and business carve-outs, equity investments, and joint ventures and other strategic partnerships. Rich primarily represents clients in the technology and life sciences industries, but has represented clients in various sectors, including telecommunications, healthcare, financial services, aviation, automotive, security, and manufacturing. In addition to M&A, Rich advises boards of directors and management teams on their most challenging issues, including shareholder engagement and activism, proxy contests, unsolicited acquisition proposals and other challenges to corporate control, management succession planning, and sensitive corporate governance matters.
From 2009 to 2010, Rich served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard M. Berman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Experience
Rich Mullen is a partner in the San Francisco office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he leads the firm's M&A practice. Rich advises public and private companies, and their boards of directors and management teams, in a wide range of strategic transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, tender and exchange offers, asset acquisitions, divestitures and business carve-outs, equity investments, and joint ventures and other strategic partnerships. Rich primarily represents clients in the technology and life sciences industries, but has represented clients in various sectors, including telecommunications, healthcare, financial services, aviation, automotive, security, and manufacturing. In addition to M&A, Rich advises boards of directors and management teams on their most challenging issues, including shareholder engagement and activism, proxy contests, unsolicited acquisition proposals and other challenges to corporate control, management succession planning, and sensitive corporate governance matters.
From 2009 to 2010, Rich served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard M. Berman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Education
- J.D., University of Michigan Law SchoolCum Laude
- B.S., Business Management—Finance, Case Western Reserve UniversitySumma Cum Laude; Team Captain and Member, Varsity Basketball; Member, Varsity Baseball
Honors
- Recognized for Corporate/M&A in California: San Francisco, Silicon Valley, & Surrounds in the 2025-2026 editions of Chambers USA
Admissions
- State Bar of California
- State Bar of New York
Credentials
Education
- J.D., University of Michigan Law SchoolCum Laude
- B.S., Business Management—Finance, Case Western Reserve UniversitySumma Cum Laude; Team Captain and Member, Varsity Basketball; Member, Varsity Baseball
Honors
- Recognized for Corporate/M&A in California: San Francisco, Silicon Valley, & Surrounds in the 2025-2026 editions of Chambers USA
Admissions
- State Bar of California
- State Bar of New York
Select Transactions
Buy-Side Transactions
-
Anduril Industries in its acquisition of the IVAS Program from Microsoft
- Bakkt Holdings in its partnership with Distributed Technologies Research
- Chronosphere in its acquisition of Calyptia
- Cloudflare in its acquisition of Replicate
- Cohu in its acquisition of Tignis
- Cursor in various transactions, including:
- its acquisition of Graphite
- its acquisition of Koala
- its acquisition of Growth by Design
- its acquisition of Autotab
- Danaher Corporation in its acquisition of Stocastic
- DoorDash in its acquisition of Chowbotics
- DroneDeploy in its acquisition of StructionSite
- Elastic in its $234 million acquisition of Endgame
- Eleven Labs in its acquihire transaction with Omnivore Media
- EnLiven Therapeutics in its reverse merger with Imara
- F5 Networks in its $670 million acquisition of Nginx
-
Fivetran in its acquisition of dbt Labs
- IonQ in various transactions, including:
- its $390 million acquisition of Lightsynq Technologies
- its $210 million acquisition of ID Quantique
- its acquisition of substantially all the assets of Qubitekk
- LinkedIn in various transactions, including:
- its acquihire transaction with Tumult Labs, Skill Seminars, Paddle
- its $85 million acquisition of Oribi
- its acquisition of EduBrite Systems
- its $275 million acquisition of Drawbridge
- its $515 million acquisition of Glint
- Lumentum in various transactions, including:
- its acquisition of IPG Photonics’ telecom transmission product lines
- its $918 Million Acquisition of NeoPhotonics
- its $750 million acquisition of Cloud Light Technology
- its $5.7 billion acquisition of Coherent (transaction terminated)
- Lunar Energy in its acquisition of Moixa Energy
- Marqeta in its acquisition of TransactPay
- MaxLinear in its $3.8 billion acquisition of Silicon Motion (transaction terminated)
- RingCentral in various transactions, including:
- its $650 million acquisition of intellectual property rights and patents from Mitel
- its acquisition of Connect First
- its acquisition of Mitel Network’s UCaaS businesses
- Roblox in various transactions, including:
- its acquisitions of BloxWorks, Speechly, Jido, Byfron, Hamul, Humen, Guilded, Bash Video, loom.ai, Imbellus, Ceebr
- its acquihire of Athenascope, Lobby Technologies, Tym
- Scale AI in its acquihire transaction with Papercup Technologies
- Transcarent in various transactions, including:
- its $861 million acquisition of Accolade, Inc.
- its acquisition of 98point6, Inc.’s AI-powered virtual care and managed care business
- its acquisition of BridgeHealth
- Twitter in various transactions, including:
- its acquisition of Smyte Inc.
- its acquisition of Yes, Inc.
- Uplift Health Technologies in its acquisition of TAO Connect
- Upstart in its $100 million acquisition of Prodigy Software
- Urgently Inc. in its acquisition of Otonomo
- Xero in its $3 billion acquisition of Melio
- Zendesk in its acquisition of Tymeshift
Sell-Side Transactions
- Aerohive Networks in its $286 million sale to Extreme Networks
- Brex in its $5.4 billion sale to Capital One
- CA in its $19 billion sale to Broadcom
- Divvy Homes in its approximately $1 billion sale of Portfolio and Platform to Brookfield
- Embark Technology in its sale to Applied Intuition
- FieldWireLabs in its $305 million sale to Hilti
- Find Your Crush (dba Gas) in its sale to Discord
- Fishbowl Media in its sale to Indeed
- Gainsight in its $1.1 billion sale to Vista Equity Partners
- GTreasury in its sale to Hg
- Inspire Energy in its sale to Shell New Energies
- Jive Software in its $480 million sale to ESW Capital
- Limelight Health in its $90 million sale to FINEOS
- LinkedIn in its sale of the SlideShare business to Scribd Inc.
- Mobile Health Consumer in its sale to H.I.G. Capital
- NanoDimension in the sale of Natron Holdings to Mercuria
- Napster in its $207 million sale to Infinite Reality
- Obviously Social in its sale to WPP
- Plaid in its $5.3 billion sale to Visa (transaction terminated)
- Raxium in its $1 billion sale to Google
- Relign in its sale to Zimmer Biomet
- Series C investors in Rhombus Energy Solutions in its $185 million sale to BorgWarner
- Spear Power Systems in its sale to Sensata Technologies
- TearLab in its debt restructuring and sale to Accelmed Partners
- Text IQ in its sale to Relativity
- Texts in its $50 Million sale to Automattic
- Telenav in its $241 million management take-private transaction with V99, Inc.
- Thorne HealthTech in its $680 million sale to L Catterton
- TruValue Labs in its sale to FactSet
- Twitter in its sale of the Fabric developer platform to Google
- WeddingWire in its $450 million sale to Permira
Other Matters
- Various public companies in their shareholder activism defense
-
Anduril in its UAE-US Joint Venture with EDGE Group
- Box in its in its proxy contest victory over Starboard
- Box in its $500 million preferred stock investment led by KKR
- Lumentum in its strategic partnership with NVIDIA and related $2 billion equity investment from NVIDIA
- RingCentral in various transactions, including:
- its strategic partnerships with Avaya, Atos, Alcatel-Lucent, Vodaphone, and Mitel
- its purchase of $125 million of Avaya’s convertible preferred stock
- its purchase of $125 million of Avaya’s convertible preferred stock
- its $200 million preferred stock investment by Searchlight Capital
- Scale AI in its $14.35 billion preferred stock investment from Meta
Matters
Select Transactions
Buy-Side Transactions
-
Anduril Industries in its acquisition of the IVAS Program from Microsoft
- Bakkt Holdings in its partnership with Distributed Technologies Research
- Chronosphere in its acquisition of Calyptia
- Cloudflare in its acquisition of Replicate
- Cohu in its acquisition of Tignis
- Cursor in various transactions, including:
- its acquisition of Graphite
- its acquisition of Koala
- its acquisition of Growth by Design
- its acquisition of Autotab
- Danaher Corporation in its acquisition of Stocastic
- DoorDash in its acquisition of Chowbotics
- DroneDeploy in its acquisition of StructionSite
- Elastic in its $234 million acquisition of Endgame
- Eleven Labs in its acquihire transaction with Omnivore Media
- EnLiven Therapeutics in its reverse merger with Imara
- F5 Networks in its $670 million acquisition of Nginx
-
Fivetran in its acquisition of dbt Labs
- IonQ in various transactions, including:
- its $390 million acquisition of Lightsynq Technologies
- its $210 million acquisition of ID Quantique
- its acquisition of substantially all the assets of Qubitekk
- LinkedIn in various transactions, including:
- its acquihire transaction with Tumult Labs, Skill Seminars, Paddle
- its $85 million acquisition of Oribi
- its acquisition of EduBrite Systems
- its $275 million acquisition of Drawbridge
- its $515 million acquisition of Glint
- Lumentum in various transactions, including:
- its acquisition of IPG Photonics’ telecom transmission product lines
- its $918 Million Acquisition of NeoPhotonics
- its $750 million acquisition of Cloud Light Technology
- its $5.7 billion acquisition of Coherent (transaction terminated)
- Lunar Energy in its acquisition of Moixa Energy
- Marqeta in its acquisition of TransactPay
- MaxLinear in its $3.8 billion acquisition of Silicon Motion (transaction terminated)
- RingCentral in various transactions, including:
- its $650 million acquisition of intellectual property rights and patents from Mitel
- its acquisition of Connect First
- its acquisition of Mitel Network’s UCaaS businesses
- Roblox in various transactions, including:
- its acquisitions of BloxWorks, Speechly, Jido, Byfron, Hamul, Humen, Guilded, Bash Video, loom.ai, Imbellus, Ceebr
- its acquihire of Athenascope, Lobby Technologies, Tym
- Scale AI in its acquihire transaction with Papercup Technologies
- Transcarent in various transactions, including:
- its $861 million acquisition of Accolade, Inc.
- its acquisition of 98point6, Inc.’s AI-powered virtual care and managed care business
- its acquisition of BridgeHealth
- Twitter in various transactions, including:
- its acquisition of Smyte Inc.
- its acquisition of Yes, Inc.
- Uplift Health Technologies in its acquisition of TAO Connect
- Upstart in its $100 million acquisition of Prodigy Software
- Urgently Inc. in its acquisition of Otonomo
- Xero in its $3 billion acquisition of Melio
- Zendesk in its acquisition of Tymeshift
Sell-Side Transactions
- Aerohive Networks in its $286 million sale to Extreme Networks
- Brex in its $5.4 billion sale to Capital One
- CA in its $19 billion sale to Broadcom
- Divvy Homes in its approximately $1 billion sale of Portfolio and Platform to Brookfield
- Embark Technology in its sale to Applied Intuition
- FieldWireLabs in its $305 million sale to Hilti
- Find Your Crush (dba Gas) in its sale to Discord
- Fishbowl Media in its sale to Indeed
- Gainsight in its $1.1 billion sale to Vista Equity Partners
- GTreasury in its sale to Hg
- Inspire Energy in its sale to Shell New Energies
- Jive Software in its $480 million sale to ESW Capital
- Limelight Health in its $90 million sale to FINEOS
- LinkedIn in its sale of the SlideShare business to Scribd Inc.
- Mobile Health Consumer in its sale to H.I.G. Capital
- NanoDimension in the sale of Natron Holdings to Mercuria
- Napster in its $207 million sale to Infinite Reality
- Obviously Social in its sale to WPP
- Plaid in its $5.3 billion sale to Visa (transaction terminated)
- Raxium in its $1 billion sale to Google
- Relign in its sale to Zimmer Biomet
- Series C investors in Rhombus Energy Solutions in its $185 million sale to BorgWarner
- Spear Power Systems in its sale to Sensata Technologies
- TearLab in its debt restructuring and sale to Accelmed Partners
- Text IQ in its sale to Relativity
- Texts in its $50 Million sale to Automattic
- Telenav in its $241 million management take-private transaction with V99, Inc.
- Thorne HealthTech in its $680 million sale to L Catterton
- TruValue Labs in its sale to FactSet
- Twitter in its sale of the Fabric developer platform to Google
- WeddingWire in its $450 million sale to Permira
Other Matters
- Various public companies in their shareholder activism defense
-
Anduril in its UAE-US Joint Venture with EDGE Group
- Box in its in its proxy contest victory over Starboard
- Box in its $500 million preferred stock investment led by KKR
- Lumentum in its strategic partnership with NVIDIA and related $2 billion equity investment from NVIDIA
- RingCentral in various transactions, including:
- its strategic partnerships with Avaya, Atos, Alcatel-Lucent, Vodaphone, and Mitel
- its purchase of $125 million of Avaya’s convertible preferred stock
- its purchase of $125 million of Avaya’s convertible preferred stock
- its $200 million preferred stock investment by Searchlight Capital
- Scale AI in its $14.35 billion preferred stock investment from Meta
Select Publications
- Contributor, Ready for the Deal: Transaction Readiness in Turbulent Times, October 9, 2025 (Published in partnership with Diligent Institute, Wilson Sonsini, Oracle NetSuite, CFO Alliance, and the CFO Leadership Council)
Select Speaking Engagements
- Speaker, “Bloomberg Deals,” Bloomberg TV, April 22, 2026
- Speaker, “Ready for the Deal: Elevate Your Transaction Readiness in Economic Uncertainty,” Diligent Institute Webinar, November 5, 2025
- Speaker, “Getting transaction ready: Boards, deals, and tech in unpredictable markets,” The Corporate Director Podcast, October 15, 2025
- Roundtable Co-lead, “Health Tech M&A and Antitrust Scrutiny," The L Suite 2025 Digital Health Regional Workshop – San Francisco, May 13, 2025
- Panelist, “How to Catch a Big GREEN Fish,” Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center Webinar, December 16, 2024
- Panelist, “Growth Through Acquisition: Buy Side Overview and Insights,” Winter 2024 M&A Bootcamp, Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center Webinar, February 28, 2024
- Speaker, “Navigating a Merger or Acquisition: From Beginning to End,” TechGC’s 2023 DeputyGC Offsite, October 12, 2023
- Speaker, "The Ultimate Guide to Mergers & Acquisition for Startups," Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center M&A Bootcamp, October, 29, 2020
- "Serial M&A in the Current Environment," Webcast, July 30, 2020
Insights
Select Publications
- Contributor, Ready for the Deal: Transaction Readiness in Turbulent Times, October 9, 2025 (Published in partnership with Diligent Institute, Wilson Sonsini, Oracle NetSuite, CFO Alliance, and the CFO Leadership Council)
Select Speaking Engagements
- Speaker, “Bloomberg Deals,” Bloomberg TV, April 22, 2026
- Speaker, “Ready for the Deal: Elevate Your Transaction Readiness in Economic Uncertainty,” Diligent Institute Webinar, November 5, 2025
- Speaker, “Getting transaction ready: Boards, deals, and tech in unpredictable markets,” The Corporate Director Podcast, October 15, 2025
- Roundtable Co-lead, “Health Tech M&A and Antitrust Scrutiny," The L Suite 2025 Digital Health Regional Workshop – San Francisco, May 13, 2025
- Panelist, “How to Catch a Big GREEN Fish,” Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center Webinar, December 16, 2024
- Panelist, “Growth Through Acquisition: Buy Side Overview and Insights,” Winter 2024 M&A Bootcamp, Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center Webinar, February 28, 2024
- Speaker, “Navigating a Merger or Acquisition: From Beginning to End,” TechGC’s 2023 DeputyGC Offsite, October 12, 2023
- Speaker, "The Ultimate Guide to Mergers & Acquisition for Startups," Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center M&A Bootcamp, October, 29, 2020
- "Serial M&A in the Current Environment," Webcast, July 30, 2020
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