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People

Joseph Halloum Baker Botts Palo Alto
Joseph Halloum Baker Botts Palo Alto
Joseph K. Halloum
Partner
[email protected]
Details
Overview
Overview Admissions & Affiliations Experience News Thought Leadership Awards and Community
Practices
Artificial Intelligence AI
Board Governance and Fiduciary Duty
Corporate
Delaware Board Governance and Fiduciary Duty
Joint Ventures
Mergers and Acquisitions
Private Equity and Private Capital
Industries
Data Centers
Life Sciences
Manufacturing
Media and Entertainment
Technology

Overview

Joseph Halloum chairs Baker Botts’ West Coast M&A practice. Based in Palo Alto, he advises leading public and private companies, boards, management teams and private equity sponsors on their most consequential M&A and strategic corporate matters, with a particular focus on technology, life sciences and other innovation-driven businesses.

Joseph's practice is distinguished by its combination of transformational public-company M&A, sophisticated private technology transactions, repeat acquisition programs for strategic acquirers and board-level counseling. He has advised on hundreds of domestic and cross-border M&A, take privates, acqui-hires, carve-outs, leveraged buyouts, strategic investments and joint ventures across software, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, semiconductors, enterprise services, telecom, media, life sciences, medtech, gaming, industrial technology and technology-enabled services.

A defining feature of Joseph's practice is the continuity and expansion of client trust. Clients frequently return to him and broaden his role over time, relying on him not only to execute transactions, but also to shape acquisition strategy, counsel boards and management teams, navigate sensitive shareholder and governance dynamics, guide post-closing integration, and help in-house legal teams institutionalize transaction preferences and lessons across successive deals.

Joseph also regularly advises public companies and boards on shareholder activism, unsolicited takeover situations and other high-stakes governance matters, many of which remain confidential. His publicly disclosed engagements include advising TriNet Group with matters involving its largest shareholder Atairos Group; Del Frisco's in its settlement with Engaged Capital; Yahoo! in its settlement with Third Point; Autodesk in its settlements with Sachem Head Capital and Eminence Capital; and Tessera Technologies in its settlement with Starboard Value.

Outside his practice, Joseph teaches M&A at Stanford Law School and Berkeley Law. He co-chairs The GC Roundtable, a community of more than 500 chief legal officers and senior legal leaders, and also co-led the M&A boardroom simulation at Stanford Directors’ College. He also created and leads the Emma and Joseph H. Halloum Business and Negotiation Competitions, first-of-their-kind programs jointly administered by Berkeley Law and the Haas School of Business.

Admissions & Affiliations

  • State Bar of California
  • District of Columbia Bar
  • New York State Bar
  • Lecturer, Mergers and Acquisitions, Stanford Law School
  • Lecturer, Mergers and Acquisitions, Berkeley Law
  • Co-Leader, M&A Boardroom Simulation, Stanford Directors' College
  • Founder and Co-Chair of The GC Roundtable
  • Founder, Emma and Joseph H. Halloum Business Competition and Negotiation Competition, Berkeley Haas + Law
  • Law360 Private Equity Editorial Board, 2025

Education

  • J.D., University of California, Berkeley, School of Law 2010
  • B.S., Business Administration, University of California at Berkeley 2005

Experience

Representative transactions and strategic matters include:

Strategic

  • The Electrum Group, NOVAGOLD Resources’ largest shareholder, in connection with NOVAGOLD’s pending $4.2 billion all-share transaction.
  • ServiceNow on its acquisitions of ThirdAI, QuickNexus, Cuein and Era Software, Inc., and carve-out businesses from Advance Solutions and Bravium Consulting.
  • Zendesk on its acquisition of Unleash Labs.
  • Keysight Technologies on its $1.4 billion acquisition of Spirent Communications.
  • Zymergen on its $300 million sale to Ginkgo Bioworks - the first-ever sale of a publicly-listed public benefit corporation.
  • Ericsson on various matters, including its $6.2 billion acquisition of Vonage and sale of its IoT Accelerator and Connected Vehicle Cloud businesses to Aeris Communications.
  • Aristocrat Leisure on its $1.2 billion acquisition of Nasdaq-listed Neogames.
  • Saint-Gobain on its $2.3 billion acquisition of GCP Applied Technologies.
  • Delphi Technologies on its $3.3 billion sale to BorgWarner.
  • Entain in connection with DraftKings’ $22.4 billion and MGM’s $11 billion takeover offers.
  • Broadcom on numerous matters, including its $37 billion sale to Avago Technologies; $164 million carve-out acquisition of LTE-related assets from Renesas Electronics; and $3.7 billion acquisition of NetLogic Microsystem.
  • LSI Corp. on its $6.6 billion sale to Avago Technologies.
  • Lattice Semiconductor on its $600 million acquisition of Silicon Image.
  • Dell on its $2.4 billion acquisition of Quest Software.
  • The Walt Disney Company on its $4 billion acquisition of Lucasfilm.
  • The Yokohama Rubber Company on its $905 million acquisition of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company’s off-the-road tire business.
  • Yahoo! on several matters, including in connection with Alibaba’s $25 billion IPO and sale of a $16 billion ownership stake in Alibaba in a series of transactions; and agreements with Alibaba and Softbank on the $4 billion restructuring of Alibaba’s Alipay business.
  • EnergySolutions on its $1.1 billion sale to Energy Capital Partners.

Private Equity

  • Vista Equity Partners on numerous acquisitions, including its $1.55 billion acquisition and split up of The Advisory Board Company’s education business, $1.6 billion take-private of Infoblox, $564 million acquisition of Xactly, $2 billion acquisition of Apptio and $2 billion take-private of MINDBODY.
  • Mulliez portfolio company Foundever on numerous confidential and pending investments and acquisitions, including its $2.2 billion take-private of Sykes Enterprises, sale of portfolio company ClearLink Technologies to Clarke Capital Partners, minority equity and debt investments in XSELL Technologies., and carve-out sale of its insurance business.
  • Permira Funds on various matters, including its $1.1 billion sale of Renaissance Learnings to Hellman & Friedman, and its $5 billion sale of NDS Group to Cisco Systems.
  • Zeus Company on its $3.4 billion sale to EQT Partners.
  • HGGC on various matters, including its acquisition of Zoo Printing, $825 million acquisition of Monotype Imaging, $555 million take-private of RPX and $450 million acquisition of Nutraceutical.
  • CVC Capital on various matters, including its $470 million minority investment in Aleph Holding and subsequent IPO plans.
  • Ares Management and Smart & Final Stores on its $1.12 billion sale to Apollo Global Management.
  • True Wind Capital on its acquisition of ARI Network Services.
  • Vector Capital and Sizmek, on their acquisition of Rocket Fuel.
  • WL Ross & Co. on its $500 million SPAC and subsequent $1.6 billion acquisition of Nexeo Solutions from TPG.
  • Parthenon Capital Partners on various matters, including its $1.05 billion sale of Cayan to TSYS, and sale of Eliza Corp. to HMS.
  • Olympus Partners on various matters, including its sale of NPC International (the largest Pizza Hut and Wendy’s franchisee) to Durational Capital, and its simultaneous acquisitions of supply chain technology providers MEBC Global and Plantensive.
  • Del Frisco’s Restaurant Group on its $650 million sale to L Catterton.
  • Fortress on its $440 million co-investment and acquisition of Perry Ellis.
  • Peak Rock Capital on numerous matters, including its acquisition of Sweet Harvest Foods and Pretzels, Inc.
  • Macquarie Capital, as co-sponsor, in the Hydra Industries SPAC IPO.
  • Fox Paine & Co. on various matters, including its sale of Penhaligon's and L'Artisan Parfumeur to PUIG and acquisition of Global Indemnity.
  • Steinway Musical on its $512 million sale to Paulson & Co.

Awards and Community

Recognized for M&A/Corporate and Commercial: Middle Market ($500m-999m) by The Legal 500 U.S., 2025

Named to the “M&A Power List” by The Legal 500 U.S., 2024

Ranked as a “Rising Star” for M&A by Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters), 2019-2023

Named one of the “Lawyers on the Fast Track” by California Legal Awards, 2022

Recognized as a California “Trailblazer” by The Recorder, 2019

Recognized with a California Lawyer “Attorney of the Year” award for his work on the Broadcom-Avago merger by The Daily Journal, 2016