Mr. Siegel is the Managing Partner of Morrison & Foerster's Tokyo office and the head of the office's 50 attorney M&A team.
Mr. Siegel has been consistently ranked as one of the leading U.S. attorneys in Japan. Among other things, he is:
- The only attorney rated as a "Star Individual" for M&A in Japan (the level above Band 1) by Chambers Global and Chambers Asia Pacific for three years running (2011 – 2013 editions); ranked in Band 1 for M&A in each of the prior 10 years, the only international attorney to be consistently ranked at this level.
- Listed as a Leading Lawyer by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific
- Listed as a Leading Lawyer by International Financial Law Review (IFLR1000)
- Listed in Best Lawyers/Japan in each year since inception
- Named Legal Advisor of the Year (M&A Advisor International – 2013)
- Named Tokyo Managing Partner of the Year (Asian Legal Business – 2012)
Mr. Siegel has appeared on CNBC and PBS’s Nightly Business Report in their coverage of Japanese legal developments, as well as on the cover of The American Lawyer in its survey of global law firms. Mr. Siegel was also recognized by The American Lawyer as “Dealmaker of the Week” in 2011 for his work on Hitachi’s $5 billion sale of its hard disk drive business to Western Digital and again in 2013 for his work on SoftBank’s $21.6 billion acquisition of Sprint.
Mr. Siegel has been resident in Japan since 1994, and managing partner of the Tokyo office since 1997.
Mr. Siegel's practice focuses on the representation of high technology companies in acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances.
Some of the M&A matters on which Mr. Siegel has advised in 2010 - 2013:
Some past matters on which Mr. Siegel has advised:
- Ricoh's $2.4 billion acquisition of IKON Office Solutions
Represented Ricoh in its $2.4 billion acquisition of IKON Office Solutions, the world's largest independent channel for document management systems (with 24,000 employees in North America and Europe).
- Citigroup's $4.6 billion tender offer for Nikko Cordial.
Represented GCA and Greenhill, as joint financial advisors to Nikko Cordial's board, in connection with Citigroup's $4.6 billion offer for Nikko Cordial.
- GCA's $850 million merger with Savvian.
Represented GCA, Japan's largest independent investment advisor, in its $850 million merger with US Investment advisor, Savvian LLC.
- Hitachi's $2 billion acquisition of IBM's hard disk drive business.
Represented Hitachi in its $2 billion acquisition of IBM's hard disk drive business (with over 20,000 employees in 8 countries).
- Fujitsu's $1.2 billion acquisition of Amdahl Corporation.
Represented Fujitsu in its $1.2 billion tender offer for U.S. mainframe manufacturer Amdahl Corporation.
- Fujitsu's sale of Fujitsu-Hitachi Plasma Display.
Represented Fujitsu in its sale to Hitachi of a 30% interest in Fujitsu Hitachi Plasma Display, a leading manufacturer of plasma display panels, as well as in the transfer of key PDP patents to Hitachi.
- SoftBank's $1.5 billion strategic alliance with Cisco.
Represented SoftBank in its $1.5 billion strategic alliance with Cisco Systems, including Cisco's $200 million investment in SoftBank and formation of a $1 billion investment fund focusing on Asian tech companies.
- Yahoo!'s $1 billion investment in SoftBank's Chinese affiliates, Alibaba and Tao Bao.
Represented SoftBank in Yahoo!'s $1 billion investment in SoftBank's China affiliates, Alibaba and Tao Bao. In the transaction, Yahoo! paid $1 billion and contributed its existing China business to Alibaba in return for a 40% stake in Alibaba.
- TDK's $300 million sale of its recording media business to Imation.
Represented TDK in the sale of its recording media business (including branded tape, DVD, CD and similar products) to Imation for $300 million in Imation shares and cash.
- TDK's $350 million acquisition of Alps' HDD head business.
Represented TDK in its $350 million purchase of Alps' business for the development, commercialization and manufacture of heads for hard disk drives.
- TDK's acquisition of Amperex Technology Limited.
Represented TDK in its acquisition of Amperex Technology, a China-based manufacturer of lithium batteries, for $110 million.
- Asahi Brewery's sale of its interest in Foster's.
Represented Asahi Breweries in its sale of a 13% interest in Foster's Breweries for $500 million (then the largest corporate buy back in Australian history).
- Nissin Food's proposed acquisition of Indofood.
Represented Nissin Food Products in its proposed acquisition, together with First Pacific Company Limited, of a 60% interest in Indofood (one of Indonesia's five largest companies) for $570 million.
- Hughes Electronics' sale of DirecTV Japan to SkyPerfect.
Represented Hughes Electronics in the sale of the assets of DirecTV Japan to SKY Perfect.
- Toshiba's $2 billion joint venture with SanDisk.
Represented Toshiba in its $2 billion joint venture with SanDisk to develop and manufacture new state of the art NAND flash memory devises in Yokkaichi, Japan. Also represented Toshiba in restructuring the parties prior flash memory joint ventures, including in Toshiba's acquisition of $1.8 billion of equipment from the joint ventures.
- Toshiba's LCD joint venture with Panasonic.
Represented Toshiba in the formation of a $1.3 billion joint venture with Panasonic to design, develop and manufacture next generation flat panel displays.
- Toshiba's CRT joint venture with Panasonic.
Represented Toshiba in the formation of a multi-billion dollar joint venture with Panasonic to combine the companies' businesses for the development, design and manufacture of cathode ray tubes (with over 15,000 employees on formation).
- Toshiba's industrial drives joint venture with General Electric.
Represented Toshiba in its $600 million global joint venture with General Electric for the manufacture and sale of industrial drive products.
- Fujitsu's global strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems.
Represented Fujitsu in its global strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems, in which the two companies combined their world-wide UNIX server development and distribution businesses.
- Fujitsu's strategic alliance with NCR.
Represented Fujitsu (Japan's leading ATM maker) in the formation of its global strategic alliance with NCR to develop and manufacture ATM's and cash dispensers.
- Fuji Electric's joint venture with Schneider.
Represented Fuji Electric in its joint venture with Schneider Electric to combine the parties' businesses for the development, manufacture and sale of electrical distribution and industrial control equipment in Japan (with more than 3000 employees in Japan and China).
- Fuji Electric's joint venture with General Electric.
Represented Fuji Electric in the establishment of a global manufacturing alliance with General Electric, including the establishment of manufacturing facilities in China, Mexico, and elsewhere.
- SoftBank's joint venture with the World Bank.
Represented SoftBank in its $500 million joint venture with the World Bank/International Finance Corporation to incubate internet businesses in emerging nations.
- SBI Holdings' strategic partnership with Euronext.
Represented SBI in the formation of its relationship with Euronext to develop a new proprietary trading system (PTS) for Japanese equities.
- SoftBank's joint ventures to establish Nasdaq Japan and Nasdaq Europe.
Represented SoftBank in its joint ventures with the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) to establish NASDAQ exchanges in Japan (in 1999) and Europe (in 2000).
- Rakuten's purchase of Linkshare.
Represented Rakuten in its purchase of Linkshare, a leader in the US online affiliate marketing business, for $425 million. This was Rakuten's first major acquisition in the United States.
- Rakuten's investment in Ctrip.
Represented Rakuten in its acquisition of a 20% interest in Nasdaq listed Ctrip, China's largest travel consolidator, for $110 million, and its subsequent sale of this stake for close to $500 million.
- Rakuten's joint venture with Baidu.
Represented Rakuten in its joint venture with Baidu to form a joint online Chinese e-commerce business leveraging Rakuten's market leading business model and Baidu's online reach in China.
- Recruit's investment in 51job.
Represented Recruit, Japan's leading HR company, in its $150 million investment in NASDAQ-listed 51job, China's leading provider of online employment information services.
- Dow Jones' Wall Street Journal joint venture with SBI Holdings.
Represented Dow Jones in its joint venture with SBI Holdings to provide the Wall Street Journal online in Japan.
- SoftBank Finance joint ventures.
Represented SoftBank Finance in joint ventures with the following companies: E*TRADE (securities trading services), E-LOAN (home and auto loan brokerage services), Morningstar (mutual funds/securities rating services), Onsale (shopping and auction services), InsWeb (insurance brokerage services), Cognotec and American Express (foreign exchange trading services), Lehman Brothers (bond trading services), DirectAdvice (investment advisory services) and plx.com (online intellectual property exchange).