New York, August 9, 2004 -- Morrison & Foerster's corporate attorneys saw a significant uptick in the performance of the securities and M&A practices in the second quarter of 2004, participating in $6.3 billion of debt and equity offerings and $2.4 billion of M&A transactions. Continuing to build off a strong first quarter the firm enjoyed second quarter growth of 29% (based on dollar value of transactions), including 15 securities offerings placed in June alone. The firm served as legal counsel on the following categories of transactions between April 1st and June 30th:

• 20 debt offerings valued at approximately $5.1 billion;
• 15 equity public offerings raising $817 million, including 7 IPOs (4 in Hong Kong and 3 in the U.S.) and 8 follow-ons; two PIPEs and one Rule 144a transaction; and
• 27 M&A representations (announced or completed) with a value of $2.4 billion.

Notable transactions

Two of the firm's largest venture-backed IPOs of the quarter included: a $79.4 million offering for Digirad Corporation, a maker of solid state nuclear cardiology equipment; and a $66 million offering for PowerDsine Ltd, a pioneer in Power over Ethernet technology. The quarter also saw the firm work on four IPOs out of Hong Kong -- The Hopefluent Group where the firm represented underwriter Tai Fook Securities; Qin Jia Yuan Media Services representing underwriter DBS Asia Capital; Lang Chao International; and Grand Investment International representing Grand Investment Securities. The firm served as counsel to W.R. Hambrecht & Co. in the first ever follow-on offering done through a Dutch-auction process for e-tailer Overstock.com. In Japan, the firm represented HSBC Bank in a $188 million international follow-on offering for Field Corporation, including a private placement in Japan and a 144a offering in the U.S.

Notable U.S. M&A work included representation of Thomson SA in its acquisition of set-top box manufacturing assets of Hughes Network Systems, Inc. for up to $400 million and the related long-term supply and development agreement of digital satellite set-top boxes with DIRECTV; representation of Boyd Gaming Corp. in its acquisition of Harrah's Shreveport Casino; and representation of Credence Systems in its acquisition of NPTest Holding. In Japan, the firm handled a number of significant cross border transactions in the quarter including representation of Dai Nippon Printing and Altech ADS in the acquisition of a controlling share in Pixel Magic Imaging.

Rankings

Acknowledging the firm as a leading U.S. legal advisor in equity and debt offerings and M&A transactions, the firm was ranked by Thomson Financial, IPO Vital Signs and Mergerstat in the following categories:

Thomson Financial

IPO Vital Signs

Mergerstat

"The continued resiliency of the capital markets for most of the second quarter together with recognition from issuers and underwriters alike that Morrison & Foerster is a valued law firm partner in raising capital and forging strategic mergers and acquisitions produced strong deal flow for the firm in the quarter," said Jim Tanenbaum, chair of Morrison & Foerster's Capital Markets practice.