Jonathan Gowdy is an experienced antitrust litigator and trusted advisor to clients involved in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, license agreements, and other strategic commercial activities. Having practiced in Washington, D.C. and Brussels, Jon has in-depth knowledge of U.S., EU, and foreign antitrust laws, as well as substantial experience representing clients in multi-agency investigations and proceedings.
Jon has secured antitrust clearances for hundreds of mergers, acquisitions, and other strategic transactions notified to antitrust and competition law agencies in the U.S., EU, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, and a host of other countries. He counsels clients on merger-notification requirements and frequently represents parties subject to in-depth investigations conducted by multiple enforcement agencies.
Jon has notable experience representing parties in litigation at both the trial and appellate levels before federal courts and administrative agencies. He advises clients on compliance programs and counsels on complex antitrust and competition law issues relating to a variety of commercial activities, including pricing policies and practices, standard-setting activities, distribution or marketing arrangements, and competitor collaborations.
Jon has a strong understanding of the business and regulatory issues facing clients across a range of industries, including computer hardware, software, and storage; consumer products, financial services, and life sciences; internet media and services; semiconductor products and manufacturing equipment; and telecommunications equipment and services. Jon understands the perspective of in-house lawyers and the value of providing practical, timely, and cost-efficient advice, as he previously worked for a venture firm that managed an investment fund and provided consulting services to early-stage technology companies.
Jon is recommended by Legal 500 US 2016 and 2017 in the area of Antitrust: Merger Control, and he is currently a member of the ABA Antitrust Section’s International Developments & Comments Task Force. During law school, Jon worked for the Merger Task Force within the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. He also served as managing editor of the Florida Law Review, and was elected to the Order of the Coif. Jon attended Duke University and received an athletic scholarship to play on the men’s soccer team.
Representative Merger & Acquisition Experience
- Deere & Co.
Representing Deere in connection with the Department of Justice’s court challenge to the proposed acquisition of Precision Planting LLC, a subsidiary of Monsanto.
- Intel Corporation
Represented Intel in obtaining U.S. and international antitrust approvals in numerous acquisitions, including:
- Lantiq Semiconductor – Acquisition of a leading supplier of broadband access and home networking technologies.
- Tsinghua Unigroup – $1.5 billion investment in Tsinghua Unigroup’s semiconductor business.
- ST-Ericsson – Acquisition of the global navigation satellite system business unit of ST-Ericsson NV.
- Stonesoft – Intel’s subsidiary McAfee acquired Stonesoft, a Finnish company providing network firewall and network security solutions, for $389 million.
- ASML – R&D funding and equity-investment agreements totaling $4.1 billion.
- Interdigital – Acquisition of 1,700 patents and patent applications related to 3G, LTE, and 802.11 wireless technologies for $375 million.
- Motorola Mobility – Acquisition of patents and wireless technologies from Motorola Mobility.
- Infineon – $1.4 billion acquisition of Infineon AG’s wireless solutions business.
- Pinnacle Entertainment
Represented Pinnacle Entertainment in its $2.8 billion acquisition of Ameristar Casinos and the sale of its real estate assets to Gaming Leisure Properties Inc. for $4.75 billion.
- Hitachi Ltd.
Represented Hitachi Ltd. in its $2 billion acquisition of IBM’s hard disk drive business, and its $4.8 billion sale of Hitachi GST to Western Digital.
- AirTran
Represented AirTran Holdings, Inc. before the U.S. Department of Justice in connection with Southwest Airlines Co.’s proposed $1.4 billion acquisition of AirTran.
- Inamed
Represented Inamed Corporation in connection with its $3.2 billion merger with Allergan and consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission.
- Oracle Corporation
Represented Oracle Corporation before the Department of Justice and European Commission in its $10.3 billion tender offer for PeopleSoft.
Representative Litigation & Appellate Experience
Litigation
- Represented El Paso Corp. in FERC and California market manipulation suits relating to California Energy Crisis.
- Represented Lenox in class action price-fixing suit relating to company’s resale price policies.
- Represented AES Corporation, Constellation New Energy, and National Energy in FERC refund proceeding and investigation of market manipulation relating to California Energy Crisis.
- Represented AES Corporation in FERC proceeding regarding approval of sale of Mountain View electric generation assets.
- Represented a major transportation company in an EU cartel investigation of the freight-forwarding industry.
- Represented Fujitsu in International Trade Commission proceeding against Samsung relating to patent-infringement claims.
- Represented the State of Alaska in rate litigation before FERC relating to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and the amount of royalties and production tax revenue owed to the State by the major oil companies.
- Represented HPL Technologies in suit relating to fraudulent representations in purchase agreement.
- Represented Transamerica HomeFirst in suit relating to reverse mortgage lending practices.
- Represented National Women’s Political Caucus in employment discrimination suit.
- Represented United Parcel Service as third-party witness in DOJ merger investigation and litigation.
- Represented Yahoo!/Launch.com in DOJ investigation on anticompetitive practices in online music industry.
- Represented Zeon Corp. in grand jury price-fixing investigation.
Appellate
- Represented amicus curiae in Texaco Inc. v. Dagher, 126 S. Ct. 1276 (2006)
- Represented United Parcel Service as amicus curiae in Verizon v. Trinko, 124 S.Ct. 87 (2004)
- Represented group of federal judges before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit against the U.S. government for violation of Constitution’s Compensation Clause – United States v. Hatter, 532 U.S. 557 (2001)
- Represented Independent Community Bankers of America as amicus curiae in support of petition for certiorari to Supreme Court in U.S. v. Visa/Mastercard antitrust case
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