March.14.2016
Orrick has advised Silicon Valley startup Cruise Automation on its acquisition by General Motors. Cruise is a leader in the “Driverless Revolution” focused on the development of driverless car technology. GM’s pending acquisition of Cruise is its latest investment towards winning the market for on-demand driverless car services that are gaining traction as an inevitable paradigm shift in the transportation industry.
As part of the parties’ shared strategic rationale for the combination, Cruise will maintain its San Francisco-based headquarters, retain its entire team and operate in large part “business as usual” as an autonomous technology development team with the full support of GM’s substantial resources to accelerate their collective time to market. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter.
Cruise Automation had raised over $18 million in venture capital funding, most recently at a post-money valuation of around $90 million. Orrick has been advising Cruise since 2014 in connection with its Series A financing round.
“This representation showcased our collaborative approach to client service and adds to a string of high profile M&A representations over the last few years involving our Technology Company Group clients,” said M&A partner Mark Seneca.
Orrick acts for more than 1,600 private tech companies globally and half of the Fortune 20 TMT. In 2015, the firm completed more than 300 venture financings worldwide raising $6.4 billion in total and advised on 167 M&A and private equity transactions worldwide valued at nearly $29 billion.
The Orrick team was led by M&A partner Mark Seneca and Technology Companies Group partners John Bautista and Augie Rakow. Additional assistance was provided by a cross-disciplinary team that included Daniel Lopez (M&A), Davis Doherty, Mark Janoff, Scott Pearsall and Kevin Kearney (Corporate / Technology Companies Group), Daniel Yost and Vineeth Narayanan (Tech Transactions), Nancy Chen, Mike Yang and Keith Tidwell (Compensation & Benefits), Steve Malvey, Eric Wall and Stephen Lessard (Tax), and Pat Zeigler (Antitrust).