Wall Street Even Owns Tech Deals

We liked Julie Triedman’s post over at AmLaw Daily so much, we’re picking up where she left off. Julie took a quick look at the ComputerWorld list of Top 10 tech deals of 2009 and scored it Wall Street 6, Silicon Valley 4.

That was pretty surprising, considering most people think of Silicon Valley for tech companies and tech deals, but this year, the field was won by Wall Street.

After the jump, we pick up the baton and provide a lot more information about which firms got the tech deals.

So here we go, with the deals ranked by decreasing enterprise value and then the buyers’ and sellers’ counsel, plus credit for any other key representations:

1. Oracle-Sun: $7.4 billion

Buyer: Latham & Watkins
Seller: Wilson Sonsini

CA +2 (2 total)

2. Xerox-Affiliated Computer Services: $6.4 billion

Buyer: Cravath
Seller: Simpson Thacher

Other: Ropes & Gray (target’s board)

CA (2), NY +2 (2), Boston +1 (1)

3. Dell-Perot Systems: $3.9 billion

Buyer: Vinson & Elkins
Seller: Baker Botts
Other: Haynes and Boone (majority selling stockholder)

CA (2), NY (2), TX +3 (3), Boston (1)

4. Cisco-Tandberg: $3.4 billion

Buyer: Fenwick & West
Seller: Skadden
Other: WilmerHale (antitrust)

CA +1 (3), NY +1 (3), TX (3), Boston (1), Washington +1 (1)

5. Cisco-Starent Networks: $2.9 billion

Buyer: Fenwick & West
Seller: WilmerHale

CA +1 (4), NY (3), TX (3), Boston (1), Washington +1 (2)

6. HP-3Com: $2.7 billion

Buyer: Cleary Gottlieb
Seller: Wilson Sonsini

(BTW: This is just deal lawyers, we’re not counting whoever is handling the ensuing litigation in this deal or the others)

CA +1 (5), NY +1 (4), TX (3), Boston (1), Washington (2)

7. EMC-Data Domain: $2.1 billion

Buyer: Skadden
Seller: Fenwick & West

CA +1 (6), NY +1 (5), TX (3), Boston (1), Washington (2)

8. Emerson-Avocent: $1.2 billion

Buyer: Davis Polk
Seller: Wilson Sonsini

Other: Ropes & Gray (IP)

CA +1 (7), NY +1 (6), TX (3), Boston +1 (2), Washington (2)

9. IBM-SPSS: $1.2 billion

Buyer: Cravath (Obviously)
Seller: Mayer Brown

CA (7), NY +1 (7), TX (3), Boston (2), Washington (2), Chicago +1 (1)

10. Ericsson-Nortel Networks’ wireless assets: $1.13 billion

Buyer: Paul Weiss
Seller: Cleary Gottlieb

CA (7), NY +2 (9), TX (3), Boston (2), Washington (2), Chicago (1)

Well, that was closer than expected, but once again New York comes out on top!

While we came up with the same overall result as AmLaw Daily, their math somehow doesn’t work out the same as ours:

Our own deals reporting from this past year shows Silicon Valley firms represented either the target or the acquiror on four of the ten deals. But Wall Street firms were involved in six, and three deals had a Wall Street firm representing both target and acquiror.

We’re not sure how they get Silicon Valley on four out of ten. Even if you localize it (i.e., exclude Latham as a Southern California firm), you still get Wilson Sonsini x3 (Sun, 3Com, Avocent), and Fenwick x3 (both Cisco deals, Data Domain) for a total of five deals with SV firms (Cisco-Tandberg, Cisco-Starent, HP-3Com, EMC-Data Domain, and Emerson-Avocent).

And where the hell are Cooley, Orrick, and MoFo?

New York spread the love much better: Cravath, Simpson, Skadden, Cleary, Davis Polk, and Paul Weiss all got pieces of the action.

At least Wachtell has an excuse for getting shut out from the East Coast roster – they were busy on all the bank deals.

Related posts:

1. Wall Street 2 Bad Review Taken Down
2. Not So Fast, Dude – HP Submits Topping Bid on Dell-3PAR Deal
3. DPW Snags Client from WSGR
4. "Wall Street" Sequel Gets Green Light
5. Deals Busted, Advisors Still Getting Paid

Tagged as: baker & botts, cleary gottlieb, cooley godward, cravath, davis polk, fenwick & west, haynes & boone, latham & watkins, M&A, mayer brown, morrison & foerster, orrick herrington, paul weiss, ropes & gray, simpson thacher, skadden, vinson & elkins, wachtell, wilmerhale, wilson sonsini