June 3, 2009 4:03 PM

Skadden, Fenwick & West, and Wilson Sonsini Work on Dueling Bids for Data Domain

Posted by Ross Todd

With EMC Corporation and NetApp Inc. offering dueling bids for Data Domain Inc., you can rest assured there are some busy lawyers in the tech sector.

Data Domain Inc., long represented by outside counsel at Fenwick & West, makes deduplication storage systems. Sounds complicated, right?

But it's really quite simple. The Santa Clara-based company has figured out a way to identify duplicate files as they are being stored, making the required storage space 10 to 30 times smaller--an innovation that's gained the attention of NetApp and EMC since both help companies store, protect, and analyze their data.

On May 21, NetApp announced plans to buy Data Domain in a deal that valued Data Domain at $1.5 billion. Data Domain shareholders were set to get $11.45 in cash and three-quarters of a share of NetApp for each Data Domain share they owned.

A team from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati that included partners Steven Bochner, Nathaniel Gallon, Michael Ringler, Ivan Humphreys, Eileen Marshall, Scott McCall, Suzanne Bell and Scott Sher worked on the deal, set to close 60-to-120 days after its announcement.

Then on Monday, EMC Corporation trumped NetApp's bid by offering $30 cash per share. The offer, worked on by Margaret Brown from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, valued Data Domain at more than $1.8 billion. 

Today, NetApp is back with a $30 offer of their own--albeit a mix of cash and stock.

Anybody else want to bid on this hot set of deduplication storage systems? Going once ...

Make a comment

Comments (0)
Save & Share: Facebook | Del.ic.ious | | Email |

Reprints & Permissions

The comments to this entry are closed.