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Negotiating a Down Round

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In a challenging venture market, there is significant pressure on valuations and existing investors are increasingly playing a larger role in funding and setting the terms for new rounds. 

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In a challenging venture market, there is significant pressure on valuations and existing investors are increasingly playing a larger role in funding and setting the terms for new rounds. As a result, down-rounds, recaps and pay-to-play financings are once again on the upswing. Such rounds bring unique considerations relating to structuring, fiduciary duties and impacts on existing equity holders. Please join us as we address:<ul><li>Financing trends</li><li>“Down rounds” and antidilution adjustments</li><li>Recapitalizations</li><li>Pay-to-play financings</li><li>Related issues and considerations</li></ul><hr>

Negotiating a Down Round

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Jim Krenn is a corporate partner and chair of the firm’s Emerging Companies + Venture Capital Group.Jim has comprehensive experience representing emerging, growth-stage, and public companies, as well as angel, corporate, and institutional investors, in strategic transactions and corporate matters throughout the company lifecycle, from formation and early-stage financings through liquidity events and public company operations. Jim’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, financings, and general corporate counseling, with a particular emphasis on life science and technology companies. He regularly advises boards of directors, executive teams, and investors on complex transactional matters, capital-raising activities, and corporate governance issues.In his mergers and acquisitions practice, Jim represents buyers and sellers in domestic and cross-border transactions across a wide range of structures, including mergers, stock and asset purchases, divestitures, joint ventures, and competitive sale processes. He has represented clients in acquisitions and sales ranging from the low millions to transactions exceeding $1 billion, for both private and public companies.Jim also counsels venture-backed and growth-stage companies in equity financings and ongoing corporate matters, and advises leading angel, corporate, and venture capital investors in their investments in such companies. He has represented clients in hundreds of venture capital and growth equity financings, from seed and early-stage rounds through $100 million-plus later-stage rounds.In addition, Jim represents public companies in initial public offerings, other capital markets transactions, and SEC reporting and compliance matters, and advises boards of directors on corporate governance issues. Jim is a member of the firm’s Life Sciences + Healthcare Group leadership team and Artificial Intelligence steering committee. He is actively involved in the startup and venture capital ecosystem, including  serving on the Board of Directors of the San Diego Entrepreneurs Exchange.<h4>Representative Transactions</h4><h5>Mergers and Acquisitions</h5><ul><li>ACEA Biosciences, a medical instruments company, in its sale to Agilent Technologies (NYSE: A) for $250 million.</li><li>Adicet Bio (Nasdaq: ACET), a biopharmaceutical company, in its merger with a wholly owned subsidiary of resTORbio (Nasdaq: TORC) to create a combined publicly traded biotechnology company.</li><li>Alaska Energy & Resources Company, a parent company of a regulated electric utility in Alaska, in its $170 million sale to Avista (NYSE: AVA).</li><li>Astute Medical, a medical diagnostic company, in its $90 million sale to bioMérieux (EPA: BIM).</li><li>B. Riley Financial (Nasdaq: RILY), a diversified financial services company, in its $53 million private placement and merger with investment banking firm B. Riley & Co.</li><li>Biotix, a private equity-backed developer and manufacturer of laboratory consumables and liquid handling solutions, in its sale to Mettler-Toledo (NYSE: MTD).</li><li>California Cryobank, a private equity-backed leader in reproductive tissue donor services and stem cell banking, in multiple acquisitions.</li><li>Clean Energy Fuels (Nasdaq: CLNE), a provider of natural gas as an alternative fuel for vehicle fleets, in its sale for up to $180 million of components of its renewable natural gas business to BP (NYSE: BP).</li><li>Cogent (Nasdaq: COGT), a biometric identification solutions provider, in its $943 million sale to 3M (NYSE: MMM).</li><li>Deere & Company (NYSE: DE), an agricultural, construction, and forestry machinery corporation, in its planned acquisition of the precision planting unit of Monsanto (NYSE: MON).</li><li>Dosatron International, a distributor of water-powered dosing pumps and systems, in connection with its sale to Ingersoll Rand (NYSE:IR).</li><li>Gillco, a leading specialty ingredient provider, in its sale to Azelis (BR: AZE).</li><li>Mentor (NYSE: MNT), a leading supplier of medical products for the global aesthetic market, in its $1.12 billion sale to Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).</li><li>Mitchell International, a developer of smart technology solutions, in its acquisition of Cogent Works.</li><li>MyChem, a provider of ultra-pure nucleotides, in connection with its sale to Maravai (NASDAQ: MRVI) for $240 million at closing with potential additional consideration.</li><li>Protomer Technologies, a biotechnology company, in its sale to Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) with a potential value of over $1 billion with successful achievement of future development and commercial milestones.</li><li>Rakuten Medical, a biotechnology and medical device company, in its acquisition of Medlight SA and its acquisition of key assets and manufacturing technology from Li-Cor Biosciences.</li><li>Safebuilt Insurance Services, a managing general agent and insurance technology company, in its sale to Integrated Specialty Coverages.</li><li>Sequlite Genomics, a DNA sequencing firm, in connection with its sale to Fapon Biotech, a diagnostic technology company.</li><li>Tendo, a digital health software company, in its acquisition of MDsave, a healthcare marketplace company.</li><li>Wavestream, a provider of high-power solid-state amplifiers, in its $137 million sale to Spacenet, a subsidiary of Gilat Satellite Networks (Nasdaq: GILT).</li></ul><h5>Equity Financings</h5><ul><li>9amHealth, a provider of virtual diabetes care, in its $4 million Series Seed financing and $16 million Series A financing.</li><li>ACEA Biosciences, a developer of cell analysis instrumentation technologies, in its $30 million Series E Preferred Stock financing.</li><li>Adicet Bio, a biopharmaceutical company, in its Series A financing of up to $51 million, and $80 million Series B financing.</li><li>Astute Medical, a medical diagnostic company focused on high-risk medical conditions and diseases, in over $200 million of equity and debt financings.</li><li>Bidra as an investor in multiple equity financings.</li><li>Biolumic, an agtech company, in its $13.5 million Series B financing.</li><li>California Cryobank, a private equity-backed leader in reproductive tissue donor services and stem cell banking, in multiple equity and debt financings.</li><li>Carlsmed, a medtech company pioneering AI-enabled personalized spine surgery solutions, in its $10 million Series A financing, $30 million Series B financing, $64.5 million Series C financing and $100.5 million initial public offering.</li><li>Corner Therapeutics, a biotech company, in its $54 million Series A financing.</li><li>Crinetics (Nasdaq:CRNX) as a strategic investor in Radionetics Oncology’s $52.5 million Series A financing.</li><li>Crinetics(Nasdaq:CRNX) in its $350 million PIPE financing, at-the-marketing offering of up to $350 million, $575 million underwritten public offering and $350 million underwritten public offering.</li><li>Forward Ventures as an investor in multiple equity financings, convertible debt financings, and M&A transactions.</li><li>Foxen, a provider of financial technology solutions for the real estate industry, in its $44 million Series A financing.</li><li>Greenoaks Capital Partners and its affiliates as investors in multiple equity financings, debt financings, and secondary transactions.</li><li>GroupSolver, an artificial intelligence market research platform, in multiple preferred stock financings.</li><li>Hume.ai, an artificial intelligence company, in multiple preferred stock financings.</li><li>Oak Investment Partners as an investor in multiple preferred stock financings.</li><li>OrbiMed as an investor in multiple equity financings, debt financings, and M&A transactions.</li><li>Petuum, an artificial intelligence and machine learning software infrastructure provider, in its $93 million Series B financing.</li><li>Pi Health, an AI-enabled health technology and clinical research company, in its spin-out from BeiGene, Ltd. and $35 million Series A financing.</li><li>Perceptive Advisors as an investor in multiple financings and transactions.</li><li>Presight Capital as an investor in multiple equity financings.</li><li>RA Capital as an investor in multiple equity financings.</li><li>Rakuten Medical, a biotechnology and medical device company, in over $800 million of debt and equity financings.</li><li>Rubi Laboratories, a company focused on converting carbon emissions into textiles, in multiple equity financings.</li><li>Softbank affiliates as investors in multiple equity financings.</li><li>Solarflare Communications, a technology company, in over $200 million of equity and debt financings.</li><li>Tendo Systems, a HealthTech software company, in its $20 million financing from Vistara.</li><li>Tutor Intelligence, an artificial intelligence robotics company, in its $34 million Series A financing.</li><li>VoloAgri, an ag-tech company, in over $150 million of equity financings.</li><li>Western Digital Capital as an investor in multiple preferred stock financings.</li></ul>

Jim Krenn

Chair of Emerging Companies + Venture Capital Practice

Alfredo Silva is a key member of the firm’s Social Enterprise + Impact Investing Group and the Emerging Companies + Venture Capital practice. He advises companies and investors—particularly in life sciences, agtech, and fintech—on a wide range of corporate and securities matters, with a strong focus on venture capital, growth equity and corporate venture capital financings. Alfredo brings particular expertise in complex restructuring and recapitalization transactions. He also advises both impact-first and return-first investors on building mission lock into their strategies, works with clients to form Delaware public benefit corporations and structure for-profit/non-profit “hybrid” entities that can attract both philanthropic and traditional capital, and on a pro bono basis advises nonprofits and small businesses on formation, structuring and governance matters.In his private company practice, Mr. Silva has served as company or investor counsel in early- and late-stage financings, minority strategic investments and impact investments in over a hundred private companies, including representation of SoftBank and SoftBank Vision Fund in financings with a combined value of over $2 billion, Temasek in its $800 million minority investment in Verily Life Sciences, an Alphabet company, and Visa Ventures in strategic fintech investments around the world.In his public company practice, Alfredo counsels issuers on strategic transactions, such as the stock-for-stock merger of Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. with Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp, as well as corporate governance and compliance with the U.S. federal securities laws and stock exchange listing standards, including advising on cutting-edge issues with respect to ESG disclosures and materiality assessments.In addition, Mr. Silva works extensively with nonprofit organizations, providing advice on fiduciary issues, entity formation, structuring and other corporate matters, and assists small businesses pro bono. He incorporated and continues to advise Illuminate, the nonprofit producer of The Bay Lights, a 25,000 LED sculpture on the western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, in structuring, corporate governance, and project management matters. Mr. Silva currently chairs the audit committees of the boards of directors of Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, a nonprofit founded by three-time NBA champion Stephen Curry and The New York Times bestselling author Ayesha Curry to unleash the potential of every child, and San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which for nearly 30 years has been pursuing a future where health justice is achieved for all people living with or at risk for HIV, both of which Mr. Silva has previously advised as corporate counsel.Alfredo is recognized by The Recorder as a 2013 Lawyer on the Fast Track, in 2014 was the inaugural recipient of the firm’s Kathi Pugh Award for Pro Bono Service, is a 2017 Lawyers Committee for Legal Diversity Fellow, and was the recipient of the American Bar Association’s 2023 National Public Service Award.

Alfredo B. D. Silva

Partner

Emerging Companies + Venture Capital

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Negotiating a Down Round

09 Mar 2023