Josh Dubofsky is a partner in the M&A and Private Equity Practices and Global Co-Chair of the firm’s Shareholder Activism & Takeover Defense Practice. Josh advises market-leading companies and private equity firms on strategic transactions and corporate governance matters as well as shareholder engagement and activism and takeover defense.

Josh has more than 20 years of experience advising corporate clients and private equity firms in their most complex domestic and cross-border transactions. He regularly advises on significant public company transactions and governance matters, private company mergers and acquisitions, and private equity investments.

Josh works closely with boards of directors, management, and shareholders on:

  • Mergers, acquisitions, and other strategic corporate transactions
  • Public and private equity and debt financing
  • Corporate governance, takeover planning, and activism defense
  • General corporate representation of both publicly traded and privately held companies

Josh has a demonstrated ability to navigate complex transactions across a range of industries, including:

  • Life sciences
  • Internet and digital media
  • Information technology
  • Retail and consumer products
  • Transportation
  • Financial services

Josh's representative experience includes advising:

Technology

  • NVIDIA in its:
    • US$40 billion proposed acquisition of Arm
    • Acquisitions of DeepMap, Oski, and Bright Computing
  • Mellanox Technologies in its:
    • US$6.9 billion sale to NVIDIA
    • Acquisition of Cumulus Networks
    • Activism defense against Starboard Value
  • Integrated Device Technology in its:    
    • US$6.7 billion sale to Renesas Electronics
    • US$250 million acquisition of GigPeak 
  • IronSource in a US$4.4 billion acquisition by Unity
  • NeoGames in a US$1.2 billion sale to Aristocrat Leisure
  • Cradlepoint in a US$1.1 billion sale to Ericsson   
  • DXC Technology in a US$2 billion acquisition of Luxoft Holding
  • The independent directors of Rackspace Hosting in Rackspace’s US$4.3 billion acquisition by Apollo Global Management
  • A special committee of the board of directors of Google in the class C non-voting common stock recapitalization of Google
  • Netsmart, a Genstar Capital portfolio company, in a US$950 million sale to GI Partners and Allscripts
  • Adobe Systems in a US$1.8 billion acquisition of Omniture

Healthcare and Life Sciences

  • Syneos Health in a US$7.1 billion sale to a private equity consortium of Patient Square Capital, Elliot Management and Veritas Capital
  • Siemens Healthineers in a US$16.4 billion acquisition of Varian Medical Systems
  • Revolution Medicines in a US$1.1 billion stock acquisition of EQRx
  • GenesisCare in an acquisition of 21st Century Oncology
  • Relypsa in a US$1.5 billion sale to Galenica AG
  • Kythera Biopharmaceuticals in a US$2.1 billion sale to Allergan plc
  • Menlo Therapeutics in a merger with Foamix Pharmaceuticals
  • Encore Vision in a US$465 million acquisition by Novartis AG
  • Allergan in the US$40.5 billion sale of its Actavis Generics business to Teva
  • ArthroCare Corporation in a US$1.7 billion sale to Smith & Nephew
  • Conceptus in a US$1.1 billion sale to Bayer AG
  • Medicis Pharmaceuticals in its acquisition by Valeant Pharmaceuticals for US$2.6 billion
  • ZymoGenetics in a US$885 million acquisition by Bristol-Meyers Squibb
  • A special committee of the board of directors of Genentech in the US$47 billion acquisition of the outstanding publicly held stock of Genentech by Roche

SPAC Business Combination Transactions

  • Planet Labs in a US$2.8 billion business combination with dMY Technology Group IV
  • Offerpad in a US$3 billion business combination with Supernova Partners Acquisition Company
  • Taboola in a US$2.6 billion business combination with Ion Acquisition Corp
  • Apex Technology Acquisition in a US$2 billion business combination with AvePoint
  • Opendoor in a US$4.8 billion business combination with Social Capital Hedosophia II
  • Virgin Galactic in a US$1.5 billion business combination with Social Capital Hedosophia
  • ChaSerg Technology Acquisition in a US$515 million business combination with Grid Dynamics
  • Eleusis in a US$415 million business combination with Silver Spike Acquisition

Transportation, Communications, Retail, and Real Estate

  • Tapestry in a US$8.5 billion acquisition of Capri Holdings
  • T-Mobile US in its:
    • US$26 billion merger with Sprint
    • US$5 billion divestiture of Sprint’s prepaid businesses to DISH
  • US Airways in a US$17 billion merger with American Airlines
  • American Airlines in a US$200 million investment in China Southern Airlines
  • Casper Sleep in a US$300 million sale to Durational Capital
  • Troon Golf in a sale to Kohlberg & Company and Great White Shark Enterprises
  • Skechers USA in connection with the 3:1 split of its Class A and Class B common stock
  • Guitar Center in a sale to Bain Capital for US$1.9 billion

Private Equity and Venture Capital

Representative clients have included Technology Crossover Ventures, Spectrum Equity, KKR, Genstar Capital, One Equity Partners, The Carlyle Group, and Weston Presidio, and recent matters include advising:

  • KKR in its investments in Ajax Health, Asclepius, Blue Sprig Pediatrics, BridgeBio Pharma, ChiliSleep, Cordis, EchoNous, Falcon Vision, Gamma Biosciences, Geode Health, Headlands Research, Impel Neuropharma, Kryo, Sapphiros, Slayback Pharma, Spirox, Trilogy MedWaste, and Zeus Health
  • Technology Crossover Ventures in public and private investments and divestitures of portfolio companies, including investments in Alarm.com, Netflix, theStreet.com, and MarketAxess and the sales of AxiomSL, ExactTarget, Fiberlink, FX Alliance, iPipeline, and XRS Corporation
  • Spectrum Equity in acquisitions of ExactBid and PicMonkey
  • Centerbridge Partners in its sale of Cardinal Logistics
  • One Equity Partners in its Media Solutions partnership with Ericsson
  • Indigo Partners in the acquisition of Frontier Airlines from Republic Airways
  • Weston Presidio in the sale of its investments in Apple American Group, Star Manufacturing, and The Wolf Organization

Activism Defense

  • Abcam in its engagement with Jonathan Milner and Starboard Value
  • AECOM in its engagement with Starboard Value
  • Cars.com in its engagement with Starboard Value
  • Cerner in its cooperation agreement with Starboard Value
  • e.l.f. Beauty in its cooperation agreement with Marathon Partners
  • IHS Holding in its engagement with Wendel, MTN and Blackwells
  • Innovative Food Holdings, Inc, in its agreement with JCP Investment Management
  • Marketwise in its engagement with F. Porter Stansberry
  • Mellanox in its settlement agreement with Starboard Value
  • Mercury Systems in its cooperation agreements with Jana Partners and Starboard Value
  • Mereo BioPharma in its cooperation agreement with Rubric Capital
  • Nevro in its settlement agreement with Broadfin Capital
  • Sculptor in its engagement with Daniel Och and with Boaz Weinstein
  • Shift Tehnologies in its engagement with Maruthi Venkata
  • Switch in its engagement with Elliott Management
  • Zevra in its engagement with Daniel Mangless

Financial Advisor Representation

Josh also represents financial advisors in public and private strategic transactions, including, among others:

  • JPMorgan in the:
    • US$68 billion merger of Analog Devices and Maxim Integrated Products
    • Acquisition by Cisco of ThousandEyes
    • Acquisition by Salesforce of Salesforce.org
  • Centerview in the US$1.1 billion acquisition of Convey Health by TPG
  • Credit Suisse in the:
    • US$1.4 billion acquisition by New Media of Gannett
    • Reclassification by Comcast of its Class A common stock
  • Morgan Stanley in the US$2.1 billion acquisition of Carbon Black by VMWare

Bar Qualification

  • California
  • New York

Education

  • JD, Columbia University School of Law, 2001
  • BS, Stanford University, 1997