Daniel J.
Cerqueira

Mr. Cerqueira’s notable transactions include representing:

• Disney in its $85 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox, overcoming an interloper bid by Comcast to its original $66 billion agreement, and ESPN’s strategic alliance with PENN Entertainment to launch ESPN BET;

• DRI Capital in DRI Healthcare Trust’s acquisition of a royalty interest in Orserdu from Eisai, its acquisition of a second royalty interest in Orserdu from Radius Health and the $210 million sale of its TZIELD royalty interest to Sanofi;

• Hasbro in the pending sale of its eOne film and TV business to Lionsgate;
• RedHill Biopharma in its agreement with HealthCare Royalty to extinguish its debt obligations in exchange for Movantik;
• Altra in its $5 billion acquisition by Regal Rexnord and its $3 billion combination with four operating companies from Fortive’s Automation and Specialty platform;

• IBM in its acquisitions of Randori, ReaQta, McD Tech Labs from McDonald’s, and BoxBoat and the sale of its marketing platform and commerce software offerings to Centerbridge;

• SMBC Aviation Capital in its $6.7 billion acquisition of Goshawk Aviation;
• GreenSky in its $2.24 billion acquisition by Goldman Sachs;
• Hibu Group in the sale of its U.S. business to H.I.G. Capital;
• Illumina in its $8 billion acquisition of GRAIL;

• Univision in its sale of a majority stake to Searchlight Capital and ForgeLight;

• Cincinnati Bell in its $2.9 billion acquisition by Macquarie Infrastructure;

• Viacom’s transaction committee in the $30 billion merger with CBS;

• Buckeye Partners in its $10.3 billion acquisition by IFM and the $975 million sale of its 50% interest in VTTI to Vitol and IFM;

• Occidental Petroleum in its $57 billion acquisition of Anadarko, topping Anadarko’s original agreement with Chevron, the $8.8 billion sale of Anadarko’s African assets to Total and the $10 billion investment by Berkshire Hathaway;

• FS Investments in the transition of the management of its business development company (BDC) platform to investment advisory partnerships with EIG Global Energy Partners and KKR;

• Brookfield Asset Management in its $3.8 billion acquisition of a controlling stake in TerraForm Power and its $1.3 billion acquisition of TerraForm Global;

• D+H in its C$4.8 billion sale to Vista Equity Partners;

• Biogen in its $1.25 billion settlement and license agreement with Forward Pharma;

• Starwood Hotels in its $13.3 billion sale to Marriott International and in connection with a competing, unsolicited acquisition proposal from a consortium consisting of Anbang Insurance Group, J.C. Flowers & Co. and Primavera Capital;

• Lindsay Goldberg in its sale of PAE to Platinum Equity;

• BDT Capital Partners in its acquisition of a majority interest in Alliance Laundry Systems from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan;

• AmerisourceBergen in its $2.5 billion acquisition of MWI Veterinary Supply; and

• AerCap in its $28 billion acquisition of International Lease Finance from AIG.

Mr. Cerqueira has also represented numerous companies in defending against hedge fund activism. Notable examples include representing:

• ARIAD Pharmaceuticals in the adoption of its shareholder rights plan and in its settlement agreement with Sarissa Capital;
• Ashland in its proxy contest and subsequent settlement agreement with Cruiser Capital;
• Disney in its support agreement with Third Point and successful proxy contest against Trian;
• Hasbro in its successful proxy contest against Alta Fox Capital;
• Hertz in the adoption of its shareholder rights plan in response to an activist investor reported to be Carl Icahn; 
• Illumina in its proxy contest against Carl Icahn; and
• Southwest Gas in its proxy fight and settlement agreement with, and its response to an unsolicited tender offer from, Carl Icahn.

In 2021, Mr. Cerqueira was named an M&A “Rising Star” by The Deal in The Dealmaker Quarterly and has been named to the Lawdragon 500 X – The Next Generation list. He has been recognized for his work in activism defense by The Legal 500 US.

Mr. Cerqueira is from Mansfield, Massachusetts. He received a B.A. from Cornell University in 2010, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2013, where he was a Submissions Editor and an Executive Editor of the Business Law Review.

Mr. Cerqueira joined Cravath in 2013 and was elected a partner in 2020.