Mark Seneca,
a Corporate partner in the Silicon Valley office, is a member of Orrick’s M&A and Private Equity Group as well as its Technology Companies Group. Mr. Seneca has dedicated his legal career to the M&A specialty, with experience in all aspects of mergers and acquisitions transactions involving both public and private companies in domestic and cross-border deals.
Mr. Seneca has a particular focus on the technology sector. Since 2010, he has worked on more than 55 technology M&A transactions. His sell-side work includes six acquisitions by Google, five acquisitions by Yahoo!, three acquisitions each by Salesforce.com and Twitter and two acquisitions each by Facebook and Adobe. These deals include his high profile work for Nest, in its US$3.2 billion acquisition by Google, and Instagram, in its US$1.0 billion acquisition by Facebook, which was ranked one of the top 10 largest valued private tech M&A deals in the U.S. in 2012. In an interview with Bloomberg Law for a “Rainmakers” episode, Mr. Seneca provided a substantive analysis of the Instagram deal, including its industry precedent and influence (click here).
On the buy-side, Mr. Seneca has served as lead M&A counsel for top public company acquirers (Apple, Yahoo!, Intellisync and Xilinx) as well as private company serial acquirers (eHarmony, Pinterest, VoloAgri and The Resource Group International Limited).
Mr. Seneca’s recent engagements include:
Nest Labs, manufacturer of the award-winning Learning Thermostat, in its US$3.2 billion acquisition by Google.
Instagram, provider of a photo sharing mobile application, in its US$1 billion sale to Facebook.
Apple Inc. in its acquisitions of Siri, Inc. and WiFiSlam.
Neolane S.A., a French software company in the campaign marketing space, in its US$600 million acquisition by Adobe Systems Incorporated.
EchoSign, a provider of electronic signatures and signature automation technology, in its acquisition by Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Pinterest, a social networking site featuring virtual pinboard, in its acquisition of VisualGraph, Inc., an image recognition startup.
Goodreads Inc., the world’s largest website for readers and book recommendations, in its acquisition by Amazon Inc.
Flutter, developer of gesture recognition technology for android and iOS devices, in its acquisition by Google.
Xobni, developer of plug-in for Outlook and mobile devices that helps users to organize their inbox, in its acquisition by Yahoo!
Mr. Seneca was recently named to Exitround’s newly formed Industry Council. Exitround is a private, anonymous marketplace for start-ups to discreetly explore strategic opportunities with buyers. The Industry Council, which is made up of some of the world’s most respected entrepreneurs, corporate development professionals and investors, will build out Exitround’s strategy and provide resources to help start-ups and buyers navigate the M&A process.
