Richard Capelouto

Richard Capelouto is recognized as one of the leading M&A and private equity attorneys in the U.S. Clients benefit from his 30 years of experience as lead counsel in advising private equity, technology and life science companies on many of the largest and most complicated deals in those industries.

Rich’s corporate representations include:

• Dell in its $67 billion acquisition of EMC, the largest technology acquisition ever completed
• Ellucian and Hellman & Friedman in sale of majority interest in Ellucian
  • Facet Biotech in its successful defense against Biogen Idec’s unsolicited tender offer and sale to Abbott Laboratories
• Electronic Arts in its offer for Take-Two Interactive
• William Morris Endeavor in its acquisition of IMG
• VERITAS Software in its merger with Symantec
• Agilent Technologies in the sale of its Semiconductor Products Group to Silver Lake and KKR
• CB Richard Ellis Services in its acquisitions of Trammell Crow and Insignia Financial Group
• The Clorox Company in its Glad Products joint venture with Procter & Gamble
  • Applera-Celera Genomics Group in its acquisition of Axys Pharmaceuticals
  • Maxim Integrated Products in its acquisition of Dallas Semiconductor

Private equity representations have included:

• Hellman & Friedman and TPG in their acquisition and subsequent sale of Intergraph Software
• Kronos and its controlling stockholders, investment funds affiliated with Hellman & Friedman, in Kronos’s pending recapitalization transaction
• Silver Lake Partners in its acquisitions of Dell, Seagate Technology, Serena Software and Network General, its investments in Motorola Solutions, Avago Technologies, Virtu Financial, William Morris Endeavor, Flextronics and Power-One and its sale of Crystal Decisions to Business Objects
• Silver Lake Partners and GIC in the $2.6 billion strategic investments in Ancestry.com
• Elevation Partners in its acquisitions of Pandemic Studios and BioWare Studios, its sale of VG Holdings and its investments in Palm and Forbes

Rich has a Band 1 Nationwide Private Equity ranking from Chambers USA, which cited him as “a great lawyer and a great businessman,” and “highly effective on bigger, complex deals.” Chambers also noted that “Clients highlight his business-focused approach to transactions and broad experience across areas such as LBOs and joint ventures.” Private Equity International included Rich among the top 10 in its “Legal Power 30,” and declared, “Capelouto is now widely regarded as the leader in his field in California.”

Rich joined Simpson Thacher in 1986 and was elected Partner in 1994. He was instrumental in launching Simpson Thacher’s Silicon Valley practice in 1999, and is former head of the Palo Alto office. He received his B.A., summa cum laude, from Rutgers University in 1983 and his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1986. He is admitted to practice in California and New York.

Education:

• Harvard Law School, 1986 J.D.
  • cum laude
• Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 1983 B.A.
  • summa cum laude

Associations:

• Association of the Bar of the City of New York
• New York State Bar Association
• American Bar Association
• The State Bar of California

Admissions:

• New York 1989
• California 2000