Denenberg played a major role in a string of initial public offerings this spring, serving as lead counsel to enterprise security company CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. and as underwriters' counsel in the $8.1 billion IPO of Uber Technologies Inc. in May.
In the long-awaited Uber IPO, he represented a large syndicate of 40 financial institutions led by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch International Ltd.
"It was more complicated than I would have anticipated," Denenberg said.
He said the scale of Uber's business, with each country having its own regulatory scheme and political factors, as well as the company's acquisitions and current lack of profitability, added to the challenges.
Denenberg, who heads Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP's Menlo Park office, said he focuses more on his busy corporate practice than his managerial duties. "We're still ultimately lawyers working on deals," he said.
Those deals included mergers and acquisitions work, as well as equity and debt offerings. He was lead counsel not only to CrowdStrike Holdings Inc.'s $703.8 million IPO, which closed in May, but also to medical equipment manufacturer ShockWave Medical Inc.'s $111.4 million IPO in May, and AssetMark Financial Holdings Inc.'s $302.5 million initial public offering in July.
AssetMark, through its subsidiaries, offers portfolio management, investment strategies and consulting services.
The CrowdStrike IPO in June was very succcessful, Denenberg said, as the company aims to keep "bad actors" -- ranging from hackers to foreign governments -- from accessing company networks.
"It's been a super-busy year," he said.
Denenberg said one unique challenge is the impact President Donald Trump can have on the equity and bond markets simply because of market-moving tweets. The price of some deals have been adversely affected by tweets, and others postponed because of social media statements that in some cases are reversed the next day.
"I've never seen anything like it," he said.
-- Craig Anderson
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