Apr. 21, 2016
Allison Berry Spinner
See more on Allison Berry SpinnerWilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC | Palo Alto
Spinner has been involved in more than 20 public offerings for leading technology companies. Among them: she represented ridesharing service Lyft in its $1 billion Series F funding round in January 2016; represented surgical illumination toolmaker Invuity Inc. in its $47.8 million IPO in June 2015; represented account aggregation software maker Yodlee Inc. in its $75 million IPO in October 2014; represented the underwriters of action camera maker GoPro Inc.'s $427 million IPO in July 2014 and represented Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as the underwriters of biotech Solazyme Inc.'s $150 million of convertible senior subordinated notes in March 2014.
For website hosting service GoDaddy Inc., said to be the world's largest ICANN-accredited domain name registrar with more than 61 million names under management, or about a fifth of the world's Internet domains, Spinner was securities counsel when the company made its $460 million initial public offering in March 2015. "The deal was unique because it was structured as an Up-C transaction," Spinner said.
She was referring to IPOs that use a form described as simple in concept but complex in detail and implementation because they leave a company's tax advantages in place for its existing owners, including, in GoDaddy's case, private-equity firms Silver Lake Partners, KKR & Co., TCV Investments and founder Bob Parsons, while offering shares to the public.
"It required a lot of tax coordination and disclosures in the prospectus reviewed by the SEC," she said. "It's an exciting company with a global business model. The team there is very passionate about its mission to serve small business customers."
Spinner coordinated with colleagues from Wilson Sonsini's tax team, corporate team, M&A counsel and lawyers who worked on the employee benefits angle. Of them all, she was the only one who flew to New York for the bell ringing ceremony at the New York Stock Exchange on April 1, 2015. "A terrific chance to share the day and celebrate the moment," she said. "I participated, but no, I didn't actually ring the bell myself. The ones who did were the people who built the company over many years. I waved the flag for our firm. I can't think of a situation where the lawyers got to ring the bell. It would be inappropriate."
? John Roemer
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