Benjamin Horwitz is an associate in Goodwin’s Strategic Technology Transactions and Licensing practice and is a member of the Technology Companies and Life Sciences groups. He concentrates on technology, data and intellectual property transactions, including technology transfers and licensing; collaboration; strategic alliance and joint development agreements; open source issues; and due diligence and other intellectual property issues in joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions and venture capital and private equity transactions. He joined Goodwin in 2017.
Experience
Mr. Horwitz’s expertise spans a broad array of industries, including SaaS and cloud computing, computer software and hardware, mobile applications, social media, artificial intelligence, blockchain technologies, open source, gaming, advertising, e-commerce and music/entertainment.
Representative Matters
- Represented Before Brands, Inc. in a series of transactions which included a minority investment by Nestle Health Science US Holdings, Inc. and a call option agreement granting Nestle an exclusive right to acquire all of the equity securities held by the stockholders and option holders of Before Brands.
- Represented Slack Technologies in its Series G and Series H financing rounds.
- Represented WorkBoard, Inc. in its Series B and Series C financing rounds.
- Represented Proxy, Inc. in its Series B round of financing.
- Represented investors including Greylock Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, and True Ventures in numerous Series Seed, Series A and Series B round financings.
Buy-Side
- Represented Lyft, Inc. in its separate acquisitions of Juno Lab LLC and FlexDrive Services, LLC.
- Represented Zendesk, Inc. in its acquisition of Smooch Technologies Holdings ULC.
- Represented PayPal, Inc. in its acquisition of Simility, Inc.
- Represented Guidewire Software, Inc. in its acquisition of Cyence Inc.
- Represented Nextdoor, Inc. in its acquisition of Pixel Labs, Inc. (dba “Hoodline”).
Sell-Side
- Represented BlueJeans Networks, Inc. in its announced sale to Verizon
- Represented Qualtrics International Inc. in its sale to SAP SE.
- Represented Olly Public Benefit Corporation in its sale to Conopco, Inc. (dba “Unilever”).
- Represented Accompany, Inc. in its sale to Cisco Systems Inc.
- Represented Index Systems, Inc. in its sale to Stripe, Inc.
Professional Activities
Mr. Horwitz has presented as a guest lecturer at the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business, addressing the common pitfalls that founders face when forming new companies. He also is involved in pro bono legal representation with the UC Hastings Start-Up Legal Garage. Mr. Horwitz is a member of the California Bar Association.
Professional Experience
Prior to joining Goodwin, Mr. Horwitz was a litigation associate, where he focused on Intellectual Property litigation and complex commercial disputes.
Credentials
Education
JD2015
University of California, Hastings College of the Law
BA2011
University of Southern California
Admissions
Bars
- California
Publications
While attending law school, Mr. Horwitz served as an editor for the Hastings Law Journal.