Mark J. Macenka

Mark Macenka, a partner in Goodwin’s Corporate and Technology Companies groups, has over 28 years’ experience in the areas of business and securities law, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and corporate finance. Mr. Macenka is a former chair of Goodwin’s Business Law Department. He joined the firm in 2005, after a 21-year career with Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP.

Mr. Macenka represents public and private growth oriented companies in emerging and high technology industries, as well as venture capital firms and investment banks. His experience includes business counseling, domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, public and private financing, domestic and international software, Internet, telecommunications and technology licensing and distribution, and strategic partnerships and joint ventures. Mr. Macenka’s practice has included cross border financings and acquisitions, as well as advice on other U.S.-based activities for companies headquartered or with significant operations in Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Israel, Lebanon and Russia.

Mr. Macenka also serves as co-chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee.

Mr. Macenka is also involved in Goodwin’s PropTech Initiative, which is focused on supporting the intersection of Real Estate and Technology through purposeful collaboration across the two practice areas.

Mr. Macenka’s corporate finance practice includes extensive experience with both private and public offerings. He has represented companies as well as venture capitalists in hundreds of financings. His completed financings on behalf of his corporate clients include investments in 211me, Acquia, Acronis, Black Duck Software, FiftyOne, GenArts, Independent Means, Lucid Imagination, MediaFriends, neoSaej, Rapid Micro Biosystems, Reprise Media and Tagsys RFID Group. In addition, Mr. Macenka has represented numerous venture capital funds and institutional investors in connection with portfolio company investments and dispositions, including Adams Street Partners, American Research & Development, Atlas Venture, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Global Technology Investments, Goldman Sachs, Grandbanks Capital, JMI, Matrix Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, National Grid, NeoNet, North Bridge Venture Partners, Pilot House Ventures, Redmont Venture Partners, Technology Venture Partners and Y Combinator.

Publicly held companies represented by Mr. Macenka have included Atria, Discreet Logic, Easel, Environmental Power, GeoTel, Groundwater Technology, META Group and SystemSoft. In addition to representing many of these companies in their initial public offerings, Mr. Macenka has counseled investment banks, including banks now a part of Cowen & Company, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Needham & Company and Thomas Weisel Partners, in connection with underwritten equity and debt public offerings for such companies as AI Corp., Bytex, Ceramics Process Systems, Computron Systems, Concentra, Data General, Gensym, HHB Systems, Kendall Square Research, MECA Software, Object Design, Parametric Technology, Peritus Software Services, SoundBite Communications, SPS Commerce and United Healthcare.

Mr. Macenka’s domestic and international M&A experience includes Ahura Scientific’s $165 million sale to ThermoFisher Scientific; Sandburst’s $77 million sale to Broadcom; WaveSmith Networks’ $178 million sale to Ciena; Astral Point’s $134 million sale to Alcatel; Vality Technology’s $92 million sale to Ascential; GeoTel’s $2 billion sale to Cisco Systems; Discreet Logic’s $500 million sale to Autodesk; Direct Hit’s $532 million sale to Ask Jeeves; FutureTense’s $125 million sale to OpenMarket; Argon Networks’ $200 million sale to Siemens; Atria’s $1.7 billion merger with Pure; Silverback Technology’s sale to Dell; StarGen’s sale to Dolphin Interconnect Solutions; Trading Metrics sale to Greenline Financial Technologies; Not A Bug’s (Reddit) sale to CondéNast; Dymec’s sale to GarrettCom; Kiko’s sale to Tucows.com; Veridiem’s sale to SAS Institute; THINQ Learning Solutions’ sale to Saba; Process Software’s sale to Platinum Equity Holdings; MV Technologies’ sale to Agilent; FASTech Integration’s sale to Brooks Automation; Easel’s sale to VMark; GenArts’ acquisition of wondertouch; Black Duck Software’s acquisition of Koders; Discreet Logic’s acquisitions of Brughetti, Denim Software, D-Vision System and Lightscape Technologies; META Group’s acquisitions of DeBoever Architectures, The Sentry Group, Rubin Systems, The Verity Group and various international distributors; SystemSoft’s acquisition of Radish Communications Systems; TrainingNet’s acquisition of First Seminar, Learning Solutions, TrainingServer and Thinq Technologies; Vality Technology’s acquisition of MatchWare Technology; FASTech Integration’s acquisitions of Baylis Automation and Midas Software; and Easel’s acquisition of Enfin Software.

Additional M&A work includes GenArts’ purchase of a line of business from The Foundry; Innovent Technologies’ purchase of a line of business from Innovent, Inc.; Innovent Technologies’ line of business spinout to MDC Vacuum Products; Innovent Technologies’ spinout of innoPad; Process Software’s purchase of a Cisco Systems line of business; Process Software’s spinout of IPWorks; IPWorks’ line of business spinout to Ericsson; and Sandburst’s line of business spinout to BlueSpec.

Mr. Macenka serves on the Board of Advisors of The New England Center for Children and is a member of the Boston Center for Community and Justice Lead Boston Class of 2007 and the Lead Boston Advisory Council.

Prior to joining Goodwin in 2005, Mr. Macenka was a partner at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault in Boston, where he was a chair of the Business Practice Group.

Mr. Macenka has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America Best Lawyers for his work in Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law and Venture Capital Law 2022-2023.

Mr. Macenka has been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and Best Lawyers.

Mr. Macenka is a frequent speaker on matters relating to entrepreneurship and venture capital, mergers and acquisitions and public offerings. He has lectured at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School, Boston University School of Management and Suffolk Law School courses on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial finance and is the author of a chapter on negotiation and deal making for Inside the Minds: Leading Deal Makers.