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Morgan Lewis
Conza

Michael A. Conza

Partner

mike.conza@morganlewis.com

Boston Phone +1.617.951.8459 Fax +1.617.345.5071

One Federal St.//Boston, MA 02110-1726//United States

Michael A. Conza has 30 years of practice in representing privately held and publicly traded companies, investment banks, and private equity and venture capital firms. His practice primarily targets the representation of emerging growth companies, with strong emphasis on software and other technology-based companies including cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. Mike is the co-leader of the firm’s emerging business and technology practice, working with companies throughout their entire lifecycle including formation, financing, growth, and exit.

In addition, Mike concentrates in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, joint ventures, and general corporate representation, which includes business counseling, licensing transactions, contract negotiations, corporate governance. and regulatory matters.

With respect to his acquisitions practice, Mike structures and negotiates mergers, tender offers, asset transactions, and other acquisitions, and assists clients in the design and implementation of defenses against unsolicited takeovers. His practice embraces both public and private companies and the representation of independent committees of directors. He regularly represents buyers and sellers in transactions ranging from tens of millions of dollars to billions of dollars. Mike has served as the co-chair of the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee of the Boston Bar Association.

Mike’s corporate finance practice includes leading clients through both private and public securities offerings. He is a nationally recognized counselor in the area of venture capital financings, and has served as chairman of the Charter Committee for the National Venture Capital Association forms project and on the advisory board of the VentureOne Deal Terms Reports.

Mike is a frequent public speaker on matters relating to mergers and acquisitions, venture capital transactions, public offerings, and other topics relevant to private and public technology companies.

Before joining Morgan Lewis, Mike was a partner at another international law firm, where he was the co-leader of their corporate practice group.

Selected Representations

  • bloXroute Labs in its $70 million Series B financing
  • CloudBees in its $245 million Series F equity and related debt financing
  • Insurify in its $100 million Series B financing
  • NAILBITER in its $13.3 million financing
  • Lola.com in the sale of its workforce and software to Capital One Financial Corp.
  • HitPoint Studios and LuckyPoint in their sale to Penn National Gaming
  • Turbonomic in its acquisition by IBM
  • SilverCloud in its acquisition by TimeTrade
  • Turbonic in its acquisition of SevOne
  • Insurify in its $23 million Series A financing
  • Lola.com in its $37 million Series C financing
  • CloudBees in its acquisition of Rollout.io 
  • CloudBees in connection with its acquisition of Electric Cloud
  • Turbonomic in connection with its acquisition of ParkMyCloud
  • CloudBees in connection with its $62 million Growth Funding transactions
  • CloudBees in connection with its acquisition of Codeship
  • CarGurus in connection with its initial public offering of Class A Common Stock
  • Multiple privately held growth companies in venture capital and other financing transactions, including CloudBees, Yesware, Lola Travel Company, Digital Alloys, meQuilibrium, IDSS Holdings, OtherSide Entertainment, Elektrofi, Mytide Therapeutics, New Valence Robotics, Affinnova, Protagonist Therapeutics, Consilience Software, VideoIQ, LuckyLabs, and Trade Area Systems
  • TheaterMania in connection with its sale to AudienceView
  • Gen9 in connection with its sale to Ginkgo Bioworks
  • Ab Initio Software in connection with various transactions
  • SCA Americas in connection with its $685 million acquisition of Wausau Paper Corp.
  • Raytheon Corporation in connection with its $1.9 billion acquisition of Websense
  • Affinnova, Inc. in connection with its sale to The Nielsen Company
  • Consilience Software in connection with its sale to Xerox
  • Kayak Software Corporation in connection with its $1.8 billion merger with priceline.com
  • KAYAK Software Corporation in connection with its initial public offering of Class A Common Stock
  • Honeywell International Inc. in connection with its joint venture with Safran to deliver an innovative electric green taxiing system for new and existing aircraft
  • Kayak Software Corporation in connection with its acquisition of swoodo
  • Kayak Software Corporation in its acquisition of SideStep Inc.
  • Groove Mobile Inc. in its sale to Livewire Mobile Inc.
  • OpenAir Inc. in its sale to NetSuite Inc.
  • TRU Holdings Inc. in its acquisition of the assets of Sage Laboratories Inc.
  • Musclemaster Inc. in connection with several acquisitions, including Unlimited Nutrition, Affordable Supplements, and Extreme Sports Nutrition
  • Oracle Corporation in several transactions, including the acquisition of ProfitLogic Inc.
  • Honeywell International Inc. in connection with several acquisition and joint venture transactions
  • RakutenUSA Inc. in connection with several acquisitions and other transactions
  • LinkShare Corporation in connection with its acquisition of TrafficStrategies.com
  • Numerous issuers and underwriters in public and quasi-public offerings

Awards and Affiliations

Recognized, Best Law Firms for Venture Capital Investment, United States (Excellent), Leaders League and Décideurs (2021)

Recognized, Corporate Law, Boston, The Best Lawyers in America (2020–2023)

Recognized, Venture Capital Law, Boston, The Best Lawyers in America (2023)

Ranked, Private Equity: Venture Capital Investment, Massachusetts, Chambers USA (2018–2022)

Recommended, M&A/corporate and commercial: Venture capital and emerging companies, The Legal 500 US (2013, 2016–2022)

Recommended, Finance: Capital markets: equity offerings, The Legal 500 US (2018)

Notable Practitioner, IFLR1000 Financial and Corporate (2019–2022) 

Notable Practitioner, IFLR1000 United States (2018, 2020)

Recognized, Massachusetts Super Lawyers (2004–2017)

Recognized, Lawdragon 500, Dealmakers in America (2007)

Member, Boston Bar Association

Order of the Coif

Editorial Board, Duke University Law Review

Top of the Class, Duke University School of Law (1989)

Admissions

  • Massachusetts
  • New York

Education

  • Duke University School of Law, 1989, J.D., with Highest Honors
  • Boston College, 1986, B.A., magna cum laude

Sectors

  • Banking

Services

  • Corporate, Finance & Investment Management
  • Emerging Business & Technology
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Capital Markets & Public Companies
  • Private Equity

Trending Topics

  • Startup & Accelerate

Events

1/1/2023 - Startup & Accelerate Webinar Series
11/16/2021 - Understanding Angel & Venture Term Sheets: A Play In 2 Acts
10/1/2020 - The 2020 Nantucket Conference
6/26/2019 - EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® New England
6/6/2019 - Nantucket v.20: Always Looking Ahead
2/5/2019 - The Capital Network Accelerators: Navigating Your Options
1/10/2019 - Understanding Angel & Venture Term Sheets: A Play In 3 Acts
10/3/2018 - Mass Tech Leadership Awards Gala
7/26/2018 - Understanding Angel & Venture Term Sheets: A Play In 3 Acts
10/18/2015 - 2015 Association of Corporate Counsel Annual Meeting

News

10/17/2022 - Morgan Lewis Counsels Sales Engagement Company Yesware in Sale to Vendasta
4/14/2022 - Morgan Lewis Advises Blockchain Distribution Network bloXroute in $70M Series B Funding
5/18/2020 - Morgan Lewis Advises Trade Area Systems in Sale to Kalibrate
10/13/2017 - Morgan Lewis Advises CarGurus in Initial Public Offering
5/10/2017 - Morgan Lewis Hosts Second Round of Judging for MassChallenge Competition Finalists
10/14/2015 - Morgan Lewis Advises Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget in $513M Pending Acquisition
4/20/2015 - Morgan Lewis Represents Raytheon Company in Joint Venture with Vista Equity Partners and Acquisition of Websense, Inc.