Jeffrey D. Saper

Palo Alto

Practice Type: Corporate

Specialty: Capital Markets

Saper, vice chairman of Wilson Sonsini, advised LinkedIn Corp. on its $352.8 million initial public offering, the largest IPO by a U.S. technology company since Google Inc. went public in 2004. The Google IPO? Also handled by Wilson Sonsini.

"Last year was amazing and next year could be far better," Saper said. "It's extraordinary how much business has come into the firm generally and I'm fortunate to get a lot of it myself."

Saper has worked on over 200 public offerings in his career, and right now he's working at different stages on 10 more.

This past year he advised LinkedIn and ServiceSource International Inc. on the company side and Amyris Inc. and Pandora Media Inc. on the underwriter side on its $234.9 million initial public offering.

Many of his clients are with the firm for the duration of their life cycle, from incorporation to sale or IPO.

"Because we're such an enterprise-focused firm, while we'll compete for business that is transactional in nature, we strive to be what's called very sticky with clients," he said. "We provide a range of services that would enable them to continue to grow alongside us."

Two of Saper's longtime clients were purchased within the last year, Arizona-based The Go Daddy Group Inc. and Santa Clara-based McAfee Inc. The later was sold to Intel Corp. for $7.68 billion. And though terms weren't disclosed for the Go Daddy buy, it was reportedly as high as $2.25 billion.

Saper said a firm needs to have a "deep bench" for transactions such as the McAfee deal, in which antitrust support is needed as well as securities litigation that emanates from public company mergers and acquisitions.

The ability to adapt is important in the fast-paced world of technology companies. And with Saper at the help of the firm, Wilson Sonsini is poised to pick up even more business while keeping longtime clients.

"We've significantly expanded in Asia; we've significantly expanded in antitrust," he said. "Those strategic moves have enabled us to maintain a very long life cycle with our clients."

While he predicts the lion's share of capital markets work at the firm will be for U.S. companies, Saper is watching international developments. He took the first Indian company public in the U.S. and has taken three Israeli companies public as well.

Looking to the future, Saper expects there will be a boom of work from cleantech companies, software makers and cloud computing providers.

"We all feel very fortunate to be where we are right now," he said. "Despite a lot of the economic volatility, we see a lot of green lights, and we're optimistic about the future."

- ROBERT PIERCE