Raaj S. Narayan is a Partner at Wachtell Lipton in the Corporate Department.  He focuses on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, takeover and shareholder activism defense, and corporate governance matters.  He represents public and private companies and private equity funds on a wide range of domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, spin-offs, investments, joint ventures, initial public offerings and other securities offerings.  Based in Silicon Valley, he represents companies and investors across industries.

Mr. Narayan has been named a Dealmaker of the Year by The American Lawyer, and a Leading Lawyer and a Leading Dealmaker by Lawdragon. Earlier in his career he was recognized as a Rising Star by several publications, including Law360, Expert Guides, IFLR and Super Lawyers.

Mr. Narayan serves on the boards of the San Francisco Symphony and Stanford Law School.  He received a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he was a member of the Stanford Law Review and the Stanford Law & Policy Review and led the Afghanistan Legal Education Project.  Mr. Narayan is a member of the New York State Bar Association and the State Bar of California.

Representative M&A transactions:

• OpenAI in its acquisitions of io products, Statsig, Neptune and Software Applications Incorporated, and its collaboration with Sir Jony Ive
• SoFi Technologies in its merger with Social Capital Hedosophia, and its acquisitions of Technisys, Golden Pacific Bancorp and Wyndham Capital
• MrBeast in its acquisition of Step and other M&A transactions
• Inari Medical in its sale to Stryker
• Bachan’s in its sale to Marzetti
• Social Capital in M&A transactions
• OpenGov in its sale to Cox Enterprises
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise in its acquisitions of Juniper Networks and Cray, and its Reverse Morris Trust transaction combining its software business with Micro Focus International
• Nielsen in its sale to a private equity consortium led by Elliott and Brookfield, and the prior sale of its Global Connect business to Advent International
• eBay in its sale of eBay Classifieds to Adevinta, and its sale of StubHub to Viagogo
• HP Inc. in its successful defense against a hostile takeover bid by Xerox
• Salesforce in its acquisitions of Tableau Software and MuleSoft
• AOL in its sale to Verizon, and its subsequent acquisition of Millennial Media
• The Cleveland Browns in its sale to Jimmy Haslam
• The Aston Villa Football Club in its sale to Recon Group
• Teneo in its investments by CVC Capital Partners and BC Partners, and its numerous acquisitions
• Opendoor Technologies in strategic partnership transactions
• Carlyle Group in its acquisitions of Duff & Phelps and CFGI
• Searchlight Capital in its investments in KORE Wireless, Gracie Point and Honor Capital
• Warburg Pincus in its investment in Varo
• Envision Healthcare in its sale to KKR
• Financial Engines in its sale to Hellman & Friedman
• GTECH in its acquisition of International Game Technology
• International Game Technology in its sale of DoubleDown to DoubleU Games
• Mondelēz in its acquisitions of Hu Products and Give & Go
• Atlas Energy in its sale to Chevron
• Ventas in its acquisition of Atria Senior Living
• Knight Capital in its merger with GETCO
• Wells Fargo in the sale of its Health Savings Account Business to UnitedHealth, and its Shareowner Services Business to Equiniti
• Capital One in its acquisitions of ING Direct USA, GE Capital’s Healthcare Finance Business, HSBC’s Domestic Credit Card Business, Cabela’s credit card program and Walmart’s credit card program
• Cantor Fitzgerald in its sale of Berkeley Point to BGC Partners
• Final in its sale to Goldman Sachs
• Itaú Unibanco in the merger of its Chilean and Colombian operations with CorpBanca
• Numerous banks and financial institutions in M&A transactions
• Hewlett-Packard Company in its separation into HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• Agilent Technologies in its spinoff of Keysight Technologies
• BGC Partners in its spinoff of Newmark
• Atlas Energy in its spinoff of Atlas Resources Partners
• Nielsen in its announced spin-off of its Global Connect business

Representative capital markets transactions:

• Square in its initial public offering
• Newmark in its initial public offering
• National MI in its initial public offering, and all of its follow-on equity and debt offerings
• Santander Consumer USA in its initial public offering
• Salesforce in its initial notes offering
• Keysight Technologies in its initial notes offering
• SoFi Technologies in its public and private equity and debt offerings
• Knight Capital in its private equity financing
• CardWorks in its private equity financing
• MrBeast in its financing transactions
• Harvey in its Series B financing led by Kleiner Perkins
• LTK in its Series B financing led by SoftBank
• Rain in its Series C financing led by ICONIQ Capital and its Series B financing led by Sapphire Ventures
• Rialto Capital in venture investments
• Mondelēz in venture investments

Representative SPAC transactions:

• American Exceptionalism Acquisition Corp. A in its initial public offering
• SoFi Technologies in its business combination with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. V
• Ginkgo Bioworks in its business combination with Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp.
• Social Capital Suvretta Holdings Corp. I in its initial public offering, and its business combination with Akili
• Social Capital Suvretta Holdings Corp. II in its initial public offering
• Social Capital Suvretta Holdings Corp. III in its initial public offering, and its business combination with ProKidney
• Social Capital Suvretta Holdings Corp. IV in its initial public offering
• Southport Acquisition Corporation in its business combination with Angel Studios