David M. Hernand is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Century City office. He is co-chair of the firm's Media, Entertainment and Technology Practice Group, a member of the Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group and the Business Restructuring and Reorganization Practice Group, as well as a member of the Corporate Department. Mr. Hernand advises companies, board of directors, special committees, investment banks, private equity and venture capital firms and high net-worth individuals and families in public and private merger and acquisition transactions (including cross-border and distressed M&A transactions), corporate control contests, strategic partnering arrangements, public and private capital raising transactions and general company representation matters. Mr. Hernand works with companies with a broad array of industries ranging from consumer products to energy, and has extensive experience working with technology and new media companies.
Mr. Hernand’s recent transactional experience includes:
- ABB's acquisition of Baldor Electric (representing Baldor)
- Disney's acquisition of Playdom (representing Playdom)
- Shamrock Capital's acquisition of Screenvision (representing Shamrock)
- Saban Capital's acquisition of Paul Frank Industries (representing Saban Capital)
- EBay’s sale of 65% of Skype to a private equity consortium (representing Goldman Sachs)
- Microsoft’s unsolicited offer to acquire Yahoo (representing Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers)
- Merger of William Morris and Endeavor (representing William Morris’ board of directors)
- Odyssey Investment Partners’ acquisition of SM&A (representing Odyssey)
- Odyssey Investment Partners’ acquisition of EAG (representing Odyssey)
- URS Corporation's acquisition of Washington Group (representing URS)
- Merger of Molson and Coors (representing Morgan Stanley)
- Sale of Club Penguin to Disney (representing Club Penguin)
In the technology sector specifically, Mr. Hernand has been involved in many of the most significant technology company M&A and investment transactions in Southern California in recent years, including transactions involving Business.com, DemandMedia, Homestore, Intermix (MySpace), IGE, LegalZoom, LowerMyBills, Oversee, PriceGrabber, Provide Commerce, Rent.com, ReachLocal and SeeBeyond.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Hernand had practiced with Latham & Watkins since 1994, with a two-year hiatus as managing director at Idealab, a Pasadena, California-based technology company incubator and later as CEO of New.net, an Idealab portfolio company.
Mr. Hernand serves as Chair of the Corporations Committee of the Business Law Section of the California State Bar and serves on the boards of The Painted Turtle and the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk. He is also a member of the Socrates Society Steering Committee of the Aspen Institute.