Christopher P. Hammond

Mr. Hammond represents public and private companies and investors in high-stakes and complex corporate matters, and has extensive experience advising key Silicon Valley and international technology companies. Mr. Hammond’s clients include strategics, private equity funds, portfolio companies, individual investors and sovereign wealth funds. He has worked on matters across an array of sectors, including computer software, data centers, semiconductors, transportation, telecommunications, social media and entertainment, financial services and pharmaceuticals.  

Mr. Hammond regularly counsels clients on transaction structuring, diligence and risk management aspects of artificial intelligence-enabled assets and on the digital infrastructure necessary to develop such assets. Within the firm, he regularly collaborates with other partners, firm leadership and technology teams to evaluate, pilot and deploy generative AI and related tools across transactional workflows.

In recognition of Mr. Hammond’s work, he has been named one of The Recorder’s Lawyers on the Fast Track. His representative experience includes:

Technology

• Juniper Networks, Inc. in its $14 billion acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• Elon Musk in his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, Inc.
• Visa, Inc. in its $1 billion acquisition of Pismo
• Credit Karma, Inc. in its $8.1 billion acquisition by Intuit Inc., one of the largest fintech deals of 2020 and one of the top five largest internet M&A transactions at the time of its announcement
• Cloud Software Group, Inc. in its acquisition of Arctera from Carlyle
• Netflix, Inc. in its acquisitions of Scanline VFX and Animal Logic
• Trimble Inc. in the sale of its global transportation telematics business units to Platform Science, Inc. 
• Sabre Corporation in its sale of the AirCentre suite of flight and crew management software solutions to CAE Inc. for $392.5 million
• LeanTeq Co., Ltd. in its $305 million acquisition by EnPro Industries, Inc.
• Yahoo! Inc. in the $4.5 billion sale of its operating business to Verizon Communications Inc.
• F5 Networks, Inc. in its $1 billion acquisition of Shape Security, Inc.
• DoorDash, Inc. in its $410 million acquisition of Caviar, Inc. from Square, Inc.

Infrastructure

• Intel Corporation in various matters, including its:
  • agreement with Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. to jointly invest approximately $30 billion to create a first-of-its-kind Semiconductor Co-Investment Program (SCIP) that introduces a new funding model to the semiconductor industry
  • $11 billion joint venture with Apollo involving Intel’s Fab 34 semiconductor manufacturing facility in Leixlip, Ireland, in a further deployment of the SCIP funding model
• Lucid Group, Inc. in its acquisition of select assets and manufacturing facilities in Arizona from Nikola Corporation through a Chapter 11 sale process
• an investor syndicate in its acquisition of a significant interest in a leading provider of hyperscaler-leased data center campuses
• Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. in its:
  • $1.4 billion sale of zColo, including certain U.S. and European data center assets, to DataBank Holdings, Ltd.
  • acquisition of Indiana Fiber Network, LLC d/b/a Intelligent Fiber Network
  • acquisition of Education Networks of America, Inc.
• SJW Group in its $1.1 billion acquisition of Connecticut Water Service, Inc. and successful defense against a hostile takeover attempt by California Water Service Group

Joint Ventures, Investments and Private Equity

• Intel Corporation in its collaboration with United Microelectronics Corporation to develop a 12-nanometer semiconductor process platform
• Trimble Inc. in the sale and contribution of its agriculture business to a joint venture with AGCO Corporation, as well as AGCO’s $2 billion acquisition of an 85% stake in the joint venture
• various foreign sovereign wealth funds, including Mubadala, in a number of significant investment transactions
• Theravance Biopharma, Inc. in the $225 million sale of its remaining royalty interest in the global net sales of Trelegy Ellipta to GlaxoSmithKline
• Cypress Semiconductor Corp. in its joint venture with SK Hynix System Ic, Inc.
• Silver Lake in its acquisition of a majority stake in ServiceMax from GE Digital
• ServiceMax, Inc., a portfolio company of Silver Lake, in its acquisition of Zinc, Inc.
• Calera Capital in a number of transactions, including its acquisitions of majority stakes in Arnott, Inc. and ImageFIRST Healthcare Laundry Specialists, Inc. and its sale of a majority stake in United Site Services, Inc.
• WL Ross Holding Corp. in its $1.7 billion acquisition of Nexeo Solutions Holdings, LLC from TPG Capital
• Lattice Semiconductor Corp. in its proposed (now terminated) $1.3 billion going-private acquisition by Canyon Bridge Capital Partners
• RPX Corporation in its $555 million acquisition by HGGC, LLC

In addition to his active involvement in Skadden’s AI programs, Mr. Hammond is also involved in the firm’s training and recruiting initiatives. He is a member of the Palo Alto office’s Hiring Committee and established and co-chairs the firm’s Palo Alto Family network. Outside of the firm, he is an active alum and lecturer at each of U.C. Berkeley’s School of Law and Haas School of Business.