Daniel R. Pierce

Areas of Practice

• Corporate Law
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Emerging Businesses
• Venture Capital
• Securities Law
• Intellectual Property Law

Representative Matters

Mergers, Acquisitions and Dispositions

• Represented Certified Collectibles Group, a leading global provider of authentication, grading and conservation services, in its sale to funds managed by private equity firm Blackstone (NYSE: BX)’s Tactical Opportunities business, which valued the company at more than $500 million.

• Represented Ology Bioservices, Inc., a Florida-based developer and manufacturer of drugs and biologics with more than $1.8 billion in government contracts awarded, in its sale to life sciences startup National Resilience; the acquisition provides Resilience with 300 skilled employees as well as more than 200,000 square feet of manufacturing, office, process development, quality assurance, and quality control space across locations in Florida, California, and Maryland.

• Represented Nueva Generación Manufacturas in its acquisition of the capacitor business manufactured and sold under the Genteq and Proline trademarks from Regal Beloit Corporation (RBC).

• Represented Clock Spring Company, Inc., the world’s leading manufacturer of composite pipeline repair solutions, in its merger with Neptune Research, LLC to create ClockSpring|NRI, and its acquisition by private equity firm Wind Point Partners. Clock Spring and NRI are manufacturers of composite materials, valves, and gaskets used in the transmission pipeline, refinery and petrochemical, water, utility, and civil infrastructure industries.

• Represented Framerate, Inc., one of the largest and fastest growing independent social video networks in esports and online gaming which generates millions of views per month across Instagram and Facebook, in its sale to Super League Gaming, Inc., which provides a platform for competitive and social gameplay experiences and is expanding its business of running esports events.

• Represented Altamil S.A. and its affiliates Deported B.V. and Electro Chango S.A. de C.V., in the sale of Kerbal Space Program, a space simulation game, to Take-Two Interactive Software, an American distributor of video games.

• Represented INNODATA INC. (Nasdaq: INOD) in connection with the acquisition by its MediaMiser subsidiary of the “Agility” global media contact database and media monitoring platform from PR Newswire.

• Represented Ology Bioservices Inc. in a purchase from Baxalta, formerly Baxter International's BioScience division, of its Vero cell technology, and the vaccine production facility in Bohumil, Czech Republic. The Vero platform is a cell-based technology for vaccines production. The principal products acquired are flu vaccines for H5N1, H1N1 and seasonal influenza as well as other investigational vaccine programs including Ross River virus, Chikungunya disease and West Nile virus.

• Represented J.F. White Contracting Company, a leading heavy/civil contractor in the New England region, in a series of related transactions, including the redemption of shares held by its ESOP, the sale of 100% of its remaining outstanding shares to Dragados Construction USA, Inc. (a subsidiary of publicly traded ACS Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA), and the spin-off of certain assets to a newly formed limited liability company.

• Represented Balchem Corporation (NASDAQ:BCPC) in its acquisition of Performance Chemicals & Ingredients Company (d/b/a SensoryEffects), a privately held supplier of customized food and beverage ingredient systems, for a purchase price of $567 million in cash.

• Represented Localocracy, LLC, an online platform for citizen engagement in their local communities, in the sale of all of its assets to the HuffingtonPost Media Group.

• Represented Multimodal Technologies, Inc. in the sale of 100 percent of its outstanding equity securities in a reverse triangular merger to Miami Acquisition Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Medquist Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MEDH), for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $130 million, including approximately $50 million in cash at closing, approximately $50 million in Medquist common stock at closing, and approximately $30 million of deferred payments payable in three annual installments.

• Represented Nasdaq-traded medical device company in strategic acquisition of privately-held company, including spin-off of unrelated technology and cross-licensing arrangement.

• Represented Waters Corporation in acquisition of Creon Lab Control, AG and its subsidiaries.

• Represented Waters Corporation in $23 million acquisition of Rheology Business of Rheometric Scientific, Inc.

Investments and Other Transactions

• Represented Treventis Corporation, a privately held biotechnology company, in entering into an option, collaboration, and exclusive licensing agreement with Takeda for the further research, development, and commercialization of small molecules that target tau, a key protein in Alzheimer's Disease, in a therapeutic strategy that aims to combat Alzheimer’s by markedly reducing tau misfolding.

• Represented Treventis Corporation in securing a $4.4 million Seeding Drug Discovery Award from the Wellcome Trust to continue development of a potentially disease-modifying drug for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

• Represented Oligomerix, Inc., a biotechnology start-up focused on developing disease-modifying therapeutics for Alzheimer's and related neurodegenerative disorders, in connection with multiple rounds of angel and venture financing, including convertible notes, Series A, Series B and several follow-on rounds of funding.

• Represented a drug-discovery company in the autism field in multiple rounds of seed and growth-stage financing (Series A, Series B, Series B-1 and convertible notes), raising in excess of $21.5 million.

• Represented a large India-based venture capital firm in both Series D and Series E investments in a Silicon-Valley IT company.

• Represented a startup in the food and beverage industry in seed and series A rounds, as well as in its sale to a nationally branded premium spirits company.

• Represented boutique investment bank in $35 million investments made by two private equity firms.

• Represented broadcast media company in major corporate restructuring and several convertible-debt offerings.

• Represented Singapore-based private equity fund in the formation of two U.S.-based feeder funds and related compliance matters.

Admissions

• Massachusetts

Education

• Boston University School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude, 1998

Experience

• Duane Morris LLP
  - Partner, 2007-present
  - Associate, 2003-2006
• Schnader Harrison Goldstein & Manello, Boston, Massachusetts
  - Associate, 1998-2002

Professional Activities

• MassChallenge
  - Mentor, Judge and Speaker
• MassMEDIC
• National Association of Corporate Directors
  - Programming Committee, New England Chapter, 2008-2010

Honors and Awards

• Super Lawyers, Massachusetts Rising Stars, 2005-2011

Selected Speaking Engagements

• "What's Happening in the Indian Market," Duane Morris LLP, September 2018

• "U.S. Legal Basics for Start-Ups," Skolkovo Innovation Center Energy Efficiency Cluster, January 2012
• "Legal Basics for Entrepreneurs," Moscow State University Guest Incubator Program, October 2011
• "Investors' Term Sheets - Deconstructed and Demystified," Harvard Business School - Entrepreneurship Club, March 2010
• "An Entrepreneur's Practical Guide to Forming a New Business," Harvard Business School - Entrepreneurship Club, November 2009