John McDonald is a member of the firm's Corporate and Private Equity practice groups, resident in our New York office. John's practice focuses on counseling clients on a full range of corporate transactional and general commercial matters, with particular emphasis on representing private equity and venture capital investment firms and their portfolio companies. In addition to serving as "outside general counsel" to clients, John regularly advises clients on leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, recapitalizations, equity and debt financings, joint ventures, executive employment matters and equity incentive issues.
John's representative private equity M&A clients include DLJ Merchant Banking Partners (an affiliate of Credit Suisse) and Tailwind Capital Partners. His representative "strategic" M&A clients include Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp. (NASDAQ: CIDM), One Communications Corp., K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), Matheson Tri-Gas, Inc. and Tata Communications, Inc.
John has extensive experience representing early-stage growth companies, as well as investors in such companies, in venture capital and other equity and debt financing transactions. He formerly served as Chairman of the Selection Committee of the Business Alliance of George Mason University's "Grubstake" venture investor breakfast series and as a presenting company advisor for MAVA's "Capital Connection" venture fair events.
John's representative venture capital clients include Edison Venture Fund; Vidsys, Inc. (funded by Flybridge Capital Partners, Motorola, Inc. and JVAX Investment Group); and Telarix, Inc. (funded by Edison Venture Fund and RedShift Ventures).
Representative Experience
Mergers and Acquisitions
Represented Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp. (NASDAQ: CIDM) in the sale of its subsidiary UniqueScreen Media, Inc. to Screenvision, LLC.
Represented NextEra FiberNet, LLC (NYSE: NEE), a subsidiary of Florida Power & Light Company, in its acquisition of the BBT business of Grande Communications Networks, LLC, a portfolio company of ABRY Partners
Represented West Corporation in its acquisition of Smoothstone IP Communications, Inc.
Represented One Communications Corp. in its acquisition by EarthLink, Inc. (NASDAQ: ELNK).
Represented Telarix, Inc. in its sale to Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
Represented Matheson Tri-Gas, Inc. in its acquisition of Western International Gas & Cylinders, Inc.
Represented One Communications Corp. in the sale of its subsidiary FiberNet, LLC to nTelos, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTLS)
Represented Matheson Tri-Gas, Inc. in its acquisition of the Valley National Gases business from Caxton-Iseman Partners.
Represented VersaPharm, Inc. (portfolio company of Tailwind Capital Partners) in its acquisition of the generic pharmaceutical business of Allan Holdings, LLC.
Represented RathGibson, Inc. (portfolio company of DLJ Merchant Banking Partners) in its acquisition of Mid-South Control Line, Inc.
Represented Tailwind Capital Partners and Telegraph Hill Partners in their acquisition of Freedom Innovations, LLC.
Represented K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN) in its acquisition of Power-Glide Foreign Language Courses, Inc.
Represented Tata Communications, Inc., India's largest telecommunications company, in its acquisition of Teleglobe International Holdings, Ltd. (NASDAQ: TLGB) (portfolio company of Cerberus Capital Management)
Represented e-Security, Inc. (portfolio company of Fidelity Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures, Updata Venture Partners and FT Ventures) in its sale to Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL)
Represented Tailwind Capital Partners in its acquisition and subsequent sale of Aircast LLC to DJ Orthopedics, Inc. (NYSE: DJO)
Represented Thayer Capital Partners in the sale of its portfolio company Vigilinx, Inc. to TruSecure Corporation
Represented Thayer Capital Partners in its acquisition and subsequent sale of Vacation.com, Inc. to Amadeus Global Travel Distribution, S.A.
Represented Chicken of the Sea, Inc. in its acquisition of Empress International Seafood, Ltd.
Venture Capital Financing
Represented Edison Venture Fund in its Series A Preferred Stock financing of Regent Education, Inc. and the subsequent Series B Preferred Stock financing by Edison and Chrysalis Ventures of Regent Education, Inc.
Represented Telarix, Inc. in its Series C-1 Preferred Stock financing by Edison Venture Fund and Redshift Ventures.
Represented Vidsys, Inc. in its Series B Preferred Stock financing by Flybridge Ventures, Motorola, Inc. and JVAX Investment Group.
Represented Glycomimetics, Inc. in its Series A Preferred Stock financing by New Enterprise Associates and Alliance Technology Ventures.
Represented Blue Run Ventures in the Series C Preferred Stock financing by Blue Run Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Intel Capital and Fina Ventures of ASIP, Inc.
Memberships & Associations
New York State Bar AssociationDistrict of Columbia Bar Association
American Bar Association
