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Private Equity

Contact

James J. Masetti
Partner, Silicon Valley
T: +1.650.233.4754
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Pillsbury’s Private Equity team brings together market-leading sector experience in a fully integrated offering across the entire private equity life cycle.

Transactions

Our Private Equity transactional team regularly advises private equity sponsors and other financial investors as well as operating companies receiving private equity investments on a full range of M&A and investment transactions. We assist buyers and sellers on public and private M&A, leveraged buyouts, growth capital investments, cross-border transactions, and bankruptcy and other distressed M&A opportunities. Our team has deep experience with both control and non-control investments, including minority and growth capital transactions. This team also regularly advises private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies on portfolio company M&A and operational matters.

The backbone of our Private Equity transactional team is an M&A group with over 100 lawyers globally that has executed more than 775 M&A transactions, with a combined value of more than $420 billion, over the last five years and across all industries. Our private equity transactional practice is bolstered by a strong Leveraged Finance team and a full suite of complementary practices in areas such as Tax, Employee Benefits, Regulatory, Intellectual Property, Insurance, Environmental, Real Estate, and Litigation. In addition, our market-leading insurance coverage group has been a pioneer in reps and warranties insurance.

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Investment Funds

Pillsbury’s Investment Funds group regularly advises fund sponsors and their investor limited partners on all manner of fund formation matters.

Our lawyers counsel registered and exempt investment advisers, including private equity, venture capital, hedge fund and mutual fund managers, in all aspects of their businesses, including fund structuring, managed accounts, and funds-of-one advisory and sub-advisory arrangements.

We provide ongoing counseling regarding fund operations and help clients with a broad range of regulatory matters, including federal and state registrations and available exemptions, regulatory filings, broker-dealer and commodities matters, solicitation/placement arrangements, trading practices, derivatives, ERISA, profit sharing, and compliance policies and procedures. We also have a dedicated task force that is closely tracking the evolution of U.S. anti-money laundering and corporate transparency regulations, including new beneficial ownership disclosure requirements.

Finally, the members of our Private Equity team work closely with one another to offer an integrated solution for M&A and investment transactions combining elements of fund formation and transactional practice, including co-investments, secondary transfers, end-of-fund-life transactions, investments in fund sponsors, and portfolio and investment team spin-outs.

Representative Experience

  • Everi in the combination and simultaneous acquisition of Everi and the gaming businesses of International Game Technology (IGT) by a newly formed holding company owned by funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management for approximately $6.3 billion on a combined basis. WestJet Airlines in its $3.7 billion sale to Onex.
  • CalPERS in a series of secondary transactions involving the sale of over 100 limited partner interests representing over $10 billion in net asset value, including in the largest secondary sale transaction ever, which was a divestiture of $6 billion in private equity stakes from the fund’s $50 billion private equity portfolio, and in its commitment to $1 billion to put toward the next generation of emerging managers in the private markets.

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Pillsbury’s attorneys have deep experience advising both private equity sponsors and operating companies on a range of market-leading transactions.

  • Sponsor-side
    • Everi in the combination and simultaneous acquisition of Everi and the gaming businesses of International Game Technology (IGT) by a newly formed holding company owned by funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management for approximately $6.3 billion on a combined basis. WestJet Airlines in its $3.7 billion sale to Onex.
    • CalPERS in a series of secondary transactions involving the sale of over 100 limited partner interests representing over $10 billion in net asset value, including in the largest secondary sale transaction ever, which was a divestiture of $6 billion in private equity stakes from the fund’s $50 billion private equity portfolio, and in its commitment to $1 billion to put toward the next generation of emerging managers in the private markets.
  • Company-side
    • Hoya as a consortium member in connection with Bain Capital’s $17.8 billion acquisition of Toshiba’s Flash Memory Chip Business.
    • Chelsea Football Club in its £4.25 billion sale to a consortium led by Todd Boehly, chairman and CEO of Eldridge, and Clearlake Capital Group.
    • Founders of Digital Edge on the $1 billion establishment of a diversified Asia Pacific data center investment platform and its investment from Stonepeak.
    • Certain key unit holders in connection with Avantus’ $1 billion sale of a majority interest to KKR and EIG.
    • NextEra Energy in its $660 million acquisition of GridLiance from affiliates of Blackstone.
    • Kiteworks in its $456 million growth equity investment from Insight Partners and Sixth Street Growth.
    • Mashura in its $300 million strategic partnership with Warburg Pincus.
    • Dispatch Track in its $144 million growth transaction led by Spectrum Equity.
    • Petvisor in its $100 million strategic investment from Apax Digital, Frontier Growth and PeakSpan Capital.
    • San Francisco Giants in its strategic partnership with Sixth Street.
  • Fund-driven M&A and Select Fund Formation
    • CalPERS in its $2.7 billion sale of limited partner interests in 43 real estate investment partnerships.
    • Large global investment adviser in connection with private equity, venture capital and opportunistic direct investments and co-investments with top-tier sponsors.
    • Asia Alternatives Management LLC in its private equity joint venture with Franklin Templeton, through which the two companies created Franklin Templeton Private Equity (FTPE) to provide investors with bespoke global private equity fund-of-funds solutions.
    • Global alternative asset manager and a global operating company in the creation of a new joint venture asset management business.
    • HarbourVest Partners in connection with numerous co-investments and secondary investment transactions.
    • Multi-billion-dollar family office in its investment arrangements with a private equity and venture capital sponsor.
    • Sovereign wealth fund in its investment in the general partner of a global private equity sponsor.
    • CHL Medical Partners regarding formation of four venture capital funds, including one Sharia-compliant fund.
    • New Era Ventures in connection with an investment fund formation matter.
    • Schroders in connection with an investment fund formation matter.

Practice Area Highlights

  • Ranked Tier 1 for U.S. Middle Market M&A (2022–2025) and recognized as a national leader for Private Equity Buyouts: Middle Market (2024–2025) by The Legal 500 U.S.
  • Ranked Tier 1 for M&A: USA by Best Lawyers (2024).
  • Recognized as a Firm to Watch in the Private Equity Buyouts space by The Legal 500 U.S. (2022–2023).

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  • Recognized as a “Top 10 most active law firm in the world for advising PE investors” by LSEG (2023).
  • Best Lawyers/U.S. News & World Report awarded Pillsbury a national Tier 3 ranking for Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Law (2024–2025).
  • Awarded M&A Team of the Year (2023) and Private Equity Deal of the Year (2022) by The Deal for our work on the sale of Chelsea Football Club.
  • Frequently among the top 20 most active M&A legal advisors in league tables published by Bloomberg, FactSet, Refinitiv and others.

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