Sep. 12, 2013
Larry W. Sonsini
See more on Larry W. SonsiniWilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC | Palo Alto | Practice type: Corporate
As chairman of Wilson Sonsini, Sonsini covers a lot of ground in his corporate law practice.
Among his big deals this year, Sonsini and his team represented Salesforce.com Inc. in its $2.5 billion acquisition of ExactTarget Inc., a cloud-based marketing software developer; and represented Hybris, a maker of data management software, in its $1.5 billion acquisition by SAP AG.
"I feel good about the macro trends in the market," Sonsini said. "We will see strong mergers and acquisition growth next year, as opposed to this year, where M&A activity throughout the country was a little slower."
Sonsini also spends a significant amount of time advising public companies and boards of directors on the current trends of corporate governance and what he sees as growing shareholder activism and more demand for shareholder returns.
"Corporate governance is shifting to being a little more shareholder-centric rather than board of director-centric," he said. "Institutional shareholders are demanding more transparency and performance-based compensation. They are more willing to voice their opinions about strategic direction than they have in the past."
But Sonsini said he is optimistic about the economy rebounding, especially in the technology sector. As an example, the firm advised Palo Alto Networks in its initial public offering last year, and there are others in the hopper, Sonsini said.
Venture capital investing also continues to thrive, he said.
"I have seen good growth, particularly during the first half of this year, with company valuations generally higher than in the past quarter," Sonsini said.
Meanwhile, Sonsini noted the opening of a new Wilson Sonsini office in Los Angeles this year, with a focus on intellectual property litigation.
In addition, Sonsini said, "I've been spending time with my management team looking at growth in places like Boston and the East Coast."
- PAT BRODERICK
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