John Fisher

About John Fisher

John is a founding partner of our Silicon Valley office who advises some of Silicon Valley’s most innovative and pioneering companies in their technology and life sciences mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures.

John additionally acts as regular counsel to both US and international clients as they enter the Silicon Valley market or partner with established Silicon Valley companies.

John is ranked among leading lawyers for corporate/M&A by Chambers USA and Legal 500, the top 500 dealmakers in the US by Lawdragon 500, and “Best California Lawyer - Pharmaceutical M&A” by Acquisition International.

Prior to practicing law, John studied Biochemical Sciences at Harvard University and was a civil rights activist. John is a member of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF) which is the nation's oldest and largest association of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in the field of law. 

Recent work

Select technology M&A experience:

• Apple Inc. in connection with numerous confidential M&A transactions and acquihires.
• eBay on its proposed simultaneous acquisition of Goldin Auctions LLC, sale of the eBay Vault to Collectors Universe, Inc. and ongoing commercial relationship with Collectors.
• StepStone GmbH / Appcast, Inc., subsidiaries of Axel Springer SE, on their acquisition of Bayard Advertising Agency, Inc.
• Infineon Technologies on its $830 million acquisition of GaN Systems Inc.
• Ericsson on the sale of its IoT Accelerator and Connected Vehicle Cloud businesses and related assets to Aeris Communications, Inc.
• TriNet on its:
  • acquisition of Clarus R+D Solutions.
  • acquisition of Zenefits from Francisco Partners.
• Siemens on its:
  • sale of the global low-voltage NEMA motors business to ABB.
  • $700 million acquisition of Supplyframe.
• Salesforce on its:
  • $1.33 billion acquisition of cloud and mobile software provider Vlocity.
  • acquisition of B2B commerce platform CloudCraze.
• Axel Springer on its $1 billion acquisition of publications POLITICO, Protocol and POLITICO Europe (a joint venture with Allbritton).
• Splunk on its:
  • $1.05 billion cash and stock acquisition of cloud monitoring leader SignalFX.
  • $350 million cash and stock acquisition of Phantom Cyber.
• Cielo on its $670 million acquisition of a California-based global payment solutions provider.
• HP Inc. on its:
  • sale of certain software assets to OpenText involving over 25 non-US jurisdictions.
  • sale of a highly regulated subsidiary.
• SEGA Networks on its acquisition of Demiurge Studios.
• Symantec on its:
  • acquisition of VPN provider SurfEasy.
  • acquisition of benefit enrollment provider Excelsior Companies.
• Cooliris, a photo app-maker startup, on its sale to Yahoo!
• Provigent, an Israel-based semiconductor company, on its $335 million sale to Broadcom.
• A non-US company on its $170 million acquisition of a California-based software company.
• Skype on its acquisition of several emerging companies.

Select life sciences M&A experience:

• AstraZeneca on its $39 billion acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals.
• Fresenius Helios on its $550 million acquisition of leading international fertility company Eugin Group from NMC Health.
• Zymergen on its acquisition of Lodo Therapeutics.
• Agilent Technologies on its acquisition of Resolution Bioscience for $550 million in cash at closing and up to an additional $145 million based on achieving future performance milestones. 
• Foundation Medicine on its acquisition of precision oncology company Lexent Bio.
• Genentech on its $1.725 billion acquisition of biotechnology breast cancer treatment company Seragon Pharmaceuticals.
• Hoffmann La-Roche and its affiliates on its:
  • $1.7 billion cash acquisition of publicly-traded cancer therapy company Ignyta.
  • collaboration and option to acquire early stage MS development program Versant incubator Inception 5.
• Novira Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical HBV treatment company, on its sale to Johnson & Johnson.
• Roche Molecular Systems on its:
  • $125 million acquisition of DNA sequencing company Genia Technologies with up to $225 million in contingent-based payments.
  • acquisition of genomic analysis company BINA Technologies.
• A China-based pharmaceutical company on its $95 million purchase of biological compounds and other assets of a San Francisco-based research company.
• A San Francisco-based R&D company on its acquisition of a human antibody producing modified rat platform.

Select joint venture experience:

• The Lagunitas Brewing Company on its 50:50 joint venture with Heineken.
• UniGroup, a global transportation company, in board advice related to structuring and implementing technology joint ventures in Silicon Valley.
• UniGroup on its first technology joint venture.
• Monsanto Company on its life sciences joint venture with Pairwise Plants to advance agriculture R&D leveraging gene-editing technology.
• Monsanto Company on the formation of Innovative Seed Solutions, a life sciences joint venture with Remington focused on sorghum development, including related joint ventures in Mexico and Brazil.
• PayPal on a proposed cross-border technology joint venture related to assets valued at more than $1 billion.
• A state-owned oil and gas company on legal arrangements related to $5.8 billion in assets with two Italian energy companies.
• Experian on its technology joint venture and commercial arrangements with FICO.
• Renaissance Capital on its joint venture with Royal Bank of Scotland to issue and market currency, interest rate and credit derivative products in Russia and Eastern Europe, and in the subsequent termination of said joint venture following RBS’s acquisition of ABN Amro.
• Viking River Cruises on a joint venture related to the operation of Russian river vessels.
• Immoeast on the restructuring of a €1 billion cross-border joint venture.
• Goldman Sachs on a joint venture to buy and sell consumer debt.