Lawrence M. Chu

Larry Chu is a partner in Goodwin’s Technology  and M&A/Corporate Governance practices, and serves as the Co-Chair of the firm’s Global M&A Group. He represents domestic and non-US public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and corporate finance transactions in the technology, Internet, digital media and marketing, artificial intelligence, financial technology, e-commerce and hardware and software industries, and also represents clients in the consumer products, FMCG, beverage, apparel, telecommunications, industrial products and manufacturing, banking and financial services, and asset management sectors. In addition, he represents private equity funds in connection with the acquisition of, and investment in, certain public and private portfolio companies, as well as banking clients in connection with their roles as financial advisor and dealer/manager on M&A transactions. Larry is also a member of the firm’s FinTech, Israel, and Cannabis practices.

Larry's transaction experience includes public and private mergers and acquisitions, tender and exchange offers, carve-out transactions, asset acquisitions and dispositions, recapitalizations, management buyouts and going-private transactions, joint venture arrangements, and strategic alliances and minority investments. He also has extensive experience with cross-border transactions and has helped a number of serial acquirors manage their buy-side M&A programs. He has been recognized as a leading attorney in his field by Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, The Legal 500 and has also been included on the Global M&A Network's list of “Top 50 North American M&A Lawyers.”

Clients describe Larry as “one of the preeminent Silicon Valley corporate lawyers” and “a key business adviser as well as a legal counselor.” Clients also say: “In addition to his ability to navigate very complex M&A …his biggest strength is his ability to remain very calm and simply work through problems.”

Over the course of his career, Larry has been involved in more than 300 announced deals with an aggregate value in excess of $200 billion, including the following significant M&A transactions:

Sell-Side Transactions

• Sale of Ultimate AI to Zendesk
• Sale of Issuu to Bending Spoons
• SingTel in its sale of Amobee to Tremor International
• Oculii in connection with its $307.5 million sale to Ambarella
• Bugsnag in connection with its sale to SmartBear, a Vista Equity and Francisco Partners portfolio company
• Spacemaker.ai in connection with its acquisition by Autodesk
• Kabbage in connection with its acquisition by American Express
• Zoox in connection with its acquisition by Amazon.com
• Vlocity in connection with its acquisition by Salesforce.com for over $1.5 billion
• RiskRecon in connection with its sale to MasterCard for an undisclosed amount
• Qualtrics International in connection with its $8 billion all-cash acquisition by SAP
• OLLY PBC in connection with its sale to Unilever PLC for an undisclosed amount
• VaaS International Holdings in connection with its cash and stock acquisition by Motorola Solutions for $445 million
• Lynda.com in connection with its sale to LinkedIn for $1.5 billion in a mix of cash and stock consideration
• Semantic Machines and MileIQ in connection with their acquisitions by Microsoft Corporation
• Dropcam in connection with its $555 million sale to Nest Labs, a subsidiary of Google
• Isilon Systems in its acquisition by EMC for approximately $2.25 billion in cash
• Amobee in its acquisition by Singapore Telecommunications Limited for cash consideration of approximately $321 million
• August Home and Luxer One in connection with their acquisitions by ASSA ABLOY Group
• TellApart in connection with its acquisition by Twitter for $533 million in an all-stock deal
• Pentaho Corporation in connection with its sale to Hitachi Data Systems Corporation for over $600 million
• NTL in its $6 billion cash and stock cross-Atlantic merger with Telewest Global
• Innosight Holdings, LLC in connection with its acquisition by Huron Consulting Group for over $130 million in upfront and contingent consideration
• Nexmo, Inc. in connection with its acquisition by Vonage Holdings Corp. for approximately $230 million in cash and stock, with additional consideration of up to $20 million
• Mblox, Inc. in connection with its acquisition by CLX Communications AB for a cash consideration of $117 million
• Fahrenheit 212 and Idean Enterprises OY in connection with their combinations with Cap Gemini SA
• FutureAdvisor in connection with its acquisition by BlackRock for $152 million
• deCarta and Geometric Intelligence in connection with their sales to Uber
• 13th Lab in connection with its sale to Oculus/Facebook
• Location Labs in connection with its acquisition by AVG Technologies for cash and contingent consideration of up to $220 million
• Trunk Club in connection with its sale to Nordstrom for $350 million in Nordstrom stock and $100 million in potential incentive payments
• Flurry in connection with its sale to Yahoo!
• Klout in its acquisition by Lithium Technologies for cash and stock consideration of approximately $200 million
• Topsy Labs and the investors of LuxVue in connection with their acquisitions by Apple
• The 41^st Parameter in connection with its sale to Experian plc, for $324 million in various consideration
• EdgeSpring in its sale to Salesforce.com, for cash and stock consideration
• Vyatta, Inc. in its sale to Brocade Communications Systems
• Merchant eSolutions in its sale to Cielo, S.A. for over $700mm in enterprise value
• Extend Health in its sale to Towers Watson for $435 million in cash
• LiveOffice in its acquisition by Symantec for $115 million in cash
• Cotendo in its acquisition by Akamai Technologies for consideration of approximately $268 million
• OPENLANE in its sale to KAR Auction Services for $210 million in cash plus excess cash at closing
• MINCOM (EAM Software Holdings Pty), a Francisco Partners portfolio company, in its sale to ABB
• Blade Network Technologies, a Garnett & Helfrich portfolio company, in its sale to IBM
• CityDeal Europe in its sale to Groupon
• Jajah in connection with its sale to Telefónica O2 for $207 million in cash
• Skullcandy in connection with its recapitalization and investment by private equity firm Goode Partners
• ShareBuilder in its sale to ING Direct Bancorp for $220 million
• Traiana in its sale to ICAP PLC for approximately $251 million in cash and assumed debt
• Navis Holdings in its sale to Zebra Technologies for approximately $145 million in cash
• Altiris in its public company merger with Symantec for $830 million
• Trintech Group in its sale to Spectrum Equity Investors in a leveraged buyout for approximately $129.4 million in cash

Controlling Stockholder / Investor Consortium Representations

• An investor consortium comprised of Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst in connection with the sale of SignalFX to Splunk for over $1 billion
• An investor consortium comprised of August Capital, NEA, Sevin Rosen Funds, Lux Capital and other investors in connection with the proposed sale of Luxtera to Cisco for $660 million in cash
• An investor consortium comprised of Andreessen Horowitz, Matrix Partners and Spark Capital in connection with the sale of Oculus VR to Facebook for $2 billion in cash and stock consideration
• A controlling investor consortium led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in connection with the sale of Nest Labs to Google for $3.2 billion in cash
• An investor consortium comprised of Founders Fund and Horizons Ventures in connection with the sale of Deep Mind Technologies to Google for over $500 million
• A controlling investor consortium comprised of August Capital, Canaan Partners and Foundation Capital in connection with the sale of Ebates to Rakuten for $1 billion in cash
• An investor consortium comprised of Greycroft Partners and Upfront Ventures in connection with the sale of Maker Studios to The Walt Disney Company for approximately $1 billion in cash and contingent consideration
• August Capital in connection with numerous dispositions of its portfolio companies, including August-led investor consortiums on the sales of WePay to JPMorgan Chase for up to $400 million in consideration, ThreatMetrix to RELX for over $800 million, and Integral Ad Sciences of a controlling interest to Vista Equity Partners for an enterprise value of $850 million
• Khosla Ventures in connection with numerous dispositions of its portfolio companies, including the sale of The Climate Corporation to the Monsanto Company for approximately $930 million
• Interpark and Mr. Ki Hyung Lee, controlling shareholders of Gmarket, in connection with its takeover offer by eBay for approximately $1.2 billion in aggregate cash consideration, and the related combination of eBay’s Korean marketplace business, Internet Auction Company, with Gmarket
• The Nolet Family of Holland, owners of Ketel One Vodka, in connection with the formation of a joint venture with Diageo in exchange for a contribution of $900 million in cash and other intellectual property
• A controlling investor consortium comprised of Canaan Partners, August Capital, InterWest Partners and Southern Cross Venture Partners in the sale of Virsto Corporation to VMWare

Buy-Side Transactions

• Capitolis in connection with its acquisition of LMRKTS
• Lime in connection with M&A and corporate matters, including its acquisition of Boosted, and its $170 million fundraising led by, and acquisition of mobility assets from, Uber
• MunichRe/HSB in connection with its acquisition of Relayr for $300 million
• Brandwatch in connection with its cross-border acquisition and combination with Crimson Hexagon, creating a global leader in social intelligence
• SingTel / Amobee in its acquisitions of Videology for $117.3 million (in a successful stalking horse process out of bankruptcy), Turn, Inc. for $310 million, Adconion Media Group’s U.S. and Australian businesses for $235 million, and Kontera Technologies for $150 million, and its acquisitions of AdJitsu and Gradient X
• Atlassian in a number of acquisitions, including BlueJimp, DocTape and Wikidocs, and in its acquisition of Trello for $425 million in cash and equity consideration
• PayPal in its $120 million acquisition of Simility
• Box in a number of acquisitions, including its acquisitions of Verold and Subspace
• Informatica Corporation in over 10 acquisition transactions, including in its acquisitions of Identity Systems (a division of Nokia), Applimation, Agent Logic, Siperian, 29West, WisdomForce Technologies and its successful public bid for Heiler Software AG
• McAfee, including in its acquisition of Secure Computing, for approximately $497 million in cash, and in its acquisition of Safeboot Holding B.V. for $350 million in cash
• Ellie Mae on its M&A matters, including on its acquisition of Velocify for $128 million in cash
• CyOptics, including in its acquisition of the Photonics division from Pirelli & Co., and in its merger with Apogee Photonics, as well as in connection with its acquisition by Avago Technologies Ltd. for $400 million in cash
• Pegasystems in its cash tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Chordiant Software, for approximately $161.5 million in the aggregate
• Sony Corporation of America in its acquisition of Gracenote for $260 million in cash plus other contingent consideration
• M/C Partners and a consortium of other private equity investors in connection with the recapitalization and acquisition of Spin Media Group, Inc.
• StoneCalibre Private Investment Company, in its acquisition of the business and assets of Source Technologies
• RichRelevance, including in its acquisition of European online merchandising software maker, Avail
• Guidewire Software, including in its acquisition of data management and business intelligence software provider, Millbrook, Inc.
• CNOOC in its $18.5 billion proposal to acquire Unocal Corporation
• Check Point Software Technologies in its acquisition of Protect Data AB for approximately $586 million in cash
• EQT Private Equity in the acquisition of MTU Friedrichshafen and related off-highway engines business of DaimlerChrysler for €1.6 billion
• Atmel in its $130 million cash and stock acquisition of QRG Limited, based in the U.K
• Skype Technologies in its acquisition of Qik
• AFCV Holdings, a Summit Partners portfolio company, in its leveraged take-private acquisition of Answers Corporation for approximately $127 million in cash

Larry is a member of the American Bar Association, State Bar of California and New York State Bar Association, and serves on a number of advisory boards, including for Bolt Threads, a leading materials science company, and Ammunition, a leading industrial design and strategic consultancy. He also serves on the Fellows Committee for The Nantucket Project.

Prior to joining Goodwin in 2012, Larry was partner in the mergers and acquisitions and private equity practices at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in San Francisco. Previously, he practiced at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York and London.

In 2024, Larry was included in the Legal 500 Powerlist for M&A in the United States.

Larry has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America for his work in Corporate Law in 2021-2025.

Global M&A Network has named Larry one of North America’s top 50 M&A lawyers and he has been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business for the last several years. In addition, he has been selected for inclusion in the 2012 through 2024 editions of Northern California Super Lawyers and was previously named to its “Rising Stars” list. He is also recognized in the 2013 through 2024 editions of The Legal 500 US in the areas of Mergers and Acquisitions, Private Equity and Technology Transactions. Larry was honored as one of five finalists in the Transatlantic Corporate Dealmaker (US) category at The American Lawyer’s new Transatlantic Legal Awards and named as one of six finalists in the Legal Advisor of the Year category at the 13th Annual M&A Advisor Awards. In 2021 and 2022, Larry was named by LawDragon as one of the 500 Leading Dealmakers in America, with particular emphasis on Technology M&A. Cited by Chambers USA for his M&A expertise in Northern California and in particular his strength in the Technology arena, Larry “provides an excellent service level and drive, great communication and very strong commercial awareness leading to great results.”

Larry has authored several articles and frequently speaks at/participates on various M&A panels and conferences. Most recently:

• Author, “Who’s Got Your Back? The Role of Investor Counsel in High Pressure M&A,” peHUB, April 2014
• Author, “Delaware Court Applies Entire Fairness Standard of Review to a Sale to a Third Party When the Company Has a Controlling Shareholder,” The M&A Lawyer, November/December 2009
• Author, “Innovation and Frustration: The Developing Contours of Delaware Law Regarding Controlling Stockholders and Subsidiary Boards,” IBA Annual Mergers & Acquisitions Conference Paper, June 2005
• Panel Moderator, “Investors and Founders Share Experience of Executing on $500M& Exit,” Silicon Valley Bank’s Annual Emerging Markets Global VC GP Forum, 2016 and 2017