Warren de Wied is a member of the Firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions Practice. He is widely recognized as a leading advisor to corporate boards and public companies in M&A transactions, shareholder activism and corporate governance.
For nearly 30 years, Mr. de Wied has represented corporate boards, public companies, private equity firms and investment banks in major M&A transactions, takeover defense, contested bids, activist shareholder campaigns and corporate governance matters. His corporate board practice has increasingly focused on advising companies in connection with activist campaigns by prominent activist funds, including Elliott Associates, Icahn Management, Pershing Square, Relational Investors, Starboard Value, Third Point and ValueAct. Companies he has advised on activist matters include Applied Materials, Brocade Communications, Electronic Arts, Juniper Networks, NetApp, Netflix, Nuance Communications, Rackspace Hosting and Riverbed Technology.
Mr. de Wied rejoined Fried Frank in 2016 after six years as a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. From 2007 to 2009, Mr. de Wied was a managing director and head of Merrill Lynch’s takeover defense and shareholder activist response practice.
Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Mr. de Wied was a partner at Fried Frank and co-head of the Firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions Practice, working on a number of the most high-profile transactions of the past two decades, including representations of BellSouth in its US$89 billion merger with AT&T, Burlington Resources in its US$35 billion merger with ConocoPhillips, the management of Reckson Associates Realty Corp. in the US$6 billion sale of Reckson to SL Green, The Rouse Company in its US$12.6 billion merger with General Growth Properties, El Paso Corporation in its acquisitions of Coastal Corp. (US$16 billion), Sonat (US$4 billion), and Tenneco Energy (US$2.6 billion), and Mittal Steel in its successful €26.5 billion unsolicited takeover bid for Arcelor.
Mr. de Wied frequently writes and speaks on mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance topics.
