Eric McCrath is a partner in the firm’s San Francisco office and serves as co-chair of Morrison & Foerster's Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity Investment & Buyouts Groups. He regularly advises strategic buyers and sellers in complex public and private M&A transactions.
Mr. McCrath’s experience includes leveraged acquisitions, cross-border transactions, strategic investments, public and private securities offerings, and general corporate matters. He has worked with domestic and foreign clients across a variety of industries, including semiconductors, computer software, consumer products, financial institutions, investment management, media, professional services, and transportation.
In 2011 and 2012, Mr. McCrath was recognized as a “Rising Star” in the category of Mergers and Acquisitions in Northern California Super Lawyers.
While receiving his J.D. from Columbia University, where he was a Harlan Fiske Scholar, he served as Notes Editor of the Journal of Transactional Law.
Representative Matters
- Advised Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc., a NYSE-listed casino owner/operator, in its bid to acquire NASDAQ-listed Ameristar Casinos, Inc. in an all-cash merger, with a total enterprise value of $2.8 billion, including debt of $1.9 billion and cash on hand of $116 million. (2012)
- Advised GREE, a leading mobile gaming content and platform provider, in its acquisition of App Ant Studios, Inc., a mobile game development studio. (2012)
- Advised Autodesk, Inc. in its $60 million acquisition of Socialcam, Inc., a mobile video application. (2012)
- Advised Intel Corporation in its acquisition of a Brazilian software services company providing embedded system serviced based on Android and Linux platforms. Terms not disclosed. (2012)
- Advised Intel Corporation in its purchase of roughly 1,700 patents and patent applications from InterDigital Corporation for $375 million. (2012)
- Advised Intel Corporation in its $140 million acquisition of certain intellectual property and other assets related to the research and development of hardware network interconnect technologies from supercomputer maker Cray Inc. (2012)
- Advised GREE, Inc. in connection with its $210 million acquisition of Funzio, Inc., a mobile social gaming developer. (2012)
- Advised Intel Corporation in its $125 million acquisition of parts of the InfiniBand business of QLogic Corporation. (2012)
- Advised Pendrell Technologies, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pendrell Corporation, in its $90.1 million purchase of a controlling stake of the outstanding capital stock of privately-held ContentGuard Holdings, a leading inventor, developer and licensor of the digital rights management (DRM) and related content distribution patents and technologies from Microsoft Corporation, Technicolor USA, and Time Warner ContentGuard Holdings. (2011)
- Advised McAfee, the world's largest dedicated security technology company in its acquisition of NitroSecurity Inc. (2011)
- Advised Easton-Bell Sports, Inc. in its acquisition of certain intellectual property assets of DASC, LLC related to the design and manufacture of ice hockey skates. (2011)
- Advised Intel Corporation in connection with its acquisition of Fulcrum Microsystems Inc. (2011)
- Advised GREE, Inc. in connection with its $104 million acquisition of mobile social gaming network provider OpenFeint Inc. (2011)
- Advised ICO Global Communications, a Craig McCaw-backed telecommunications company, in a unique restructuring and reorganization transaction with total deal value of approximately $1.5 billion. The transaction involved the auction sale of certain ICO assets to DISH Network Corporation, including ICO's equity interest in its subsidiary, DBSD North America (a debtor in a bankruptcy proceeding pending in the Southern District of New York). (2011)
- Advised ON Semiconductor Corp. in connection with its $31.4 million acquisition of the image sensor business unit of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. (2011)
- Advised Intel Corporation in its $1.4 billion acquisition of Infineon’s Wireless Solutions (WLS) business. WLS is a leading provider of cellular platforms to top-tier global phone makers.(2010)
- Advised Intel Corporation in connection with its $7.7 billion acquisition of McAfee, Inc. (2010)
- Advised ON Semiconductor Corp. in connection with its $600 million acquisition of Sanyo Semiconductor Co. Ltd. (2010)
- Advised The Clorox Company in the carveout and $780 million sale of its auto-related business to private equity firm Avista Capital. The transaction included the sale of Armor All and STP brand products as well as affiliated manufacturing facilities. (2010)
- Advised Intel Corporation, in its acquisition of Virtutech, Inc., the leader in virtualized systems development. (2010)
- Advised WineCommune and J.J. Buckley, the largest wine trading and auction site on the internet, in their sale to Société des alcools du Québec. (2010)
- Advised Technicolor S.A. in connection with the sale of Convergent Corporation, its wholly owned subsidiary. (2010)
- Advised VMware in its stock acquisition of GemStone Systems, Inc., a privately held data management solutions company, and its international subsidiaries (Japan, India and the U.K.). (2010
- Advised VMware in its acquisition of Integrien, a leader in real time application and infrastructure performance analytics software. (2010)
- Advised Easton-Bell Sports, Inc. in connection with its acquisition of Talon Lacrosse, LLC. (2010)
- Advised Cleantech America, Inc. in connection with its sale to Meridian Energy Limited. (2009)
- Advised Sumitomo Heavy Industries in connection with its acquisition of Axcelis Technologies, Inc.’s 50% interest in SEN, a joint venture between Sumitomo Heavy Industries and Axcelis. (2009)
- Advised Geolo Partners in connection with its acquisition of Carmel Valley Ranch. (2009)
- Advised Brazos Pacific Partners in connection with its acquisition of a controlling stake in Sonoma county-based Copain Wine Cellars and Atelier-Copain. (2009)
- Advised Gruppo Campari in its acquisition of Wild Turkey, the #1 premium brand of Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey from Pernod Ricard for $575 million. (2009)
- Advised First Carbon Solutions in its acquisition of Enverity Corporation. (2009)
- Advised Sumitomo Heavy Industries in connection with its acquisition of Demag Ergotech GmbH and Van Dorn Demag Corporation. (2008)
- Advised Restoration Hardware in its $325 million acquisition by Catterton Partners. (2008)
- Advised GESD Capital Partners in the acquisition of eight California and Northwest wineries for more than $200 million from Constellation Brands. (2008)