Rowook Park

Ro focuses his practice on cutting-edge technology and biotech transactions, and he has guided his clients through high-stakes public and private mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financings, and securities offerings representing an aggregate value of more than $265 billion. He’s also one of the go-to M&A advisers for complex cross-border transactions in these areas.

In recent years, Ro led the Cooley team advising Horizon Therapeutics on its $28.3 billion agreement to sell to Amgen, which represented the largest healthcare deal of 2022 and the third-largest all-cash healthcare deal in history as of the announcement. Ro also led the Cooley team advising Japanese payments platform Paidy on its $2.7 billion sale to PayPal, which was named M&A Deal of the Year at the International Financial Law Review’s 2022 Asia-Pacific Awards.

In addition, Ro is highly sought after by boards of directors and special committees for his in-depth understanding and extensive experience in activist defense, proxy contests, and corporate governance matters.

Ro’s representative matters include advising:

• 6degrees.xyz in its sale to Niantic
• Accriva Diagnostics, a medical device portfolio company controlled by Warburg Pincus, in its acquisition by Werfen for a cash consideration of $380 million
• Arena Pharmaceuticals in its global license and sale of related assets to United Therapeutics for Arena’s drug candidate ralinepag for an upfront payment of $800 million, milestone payments totaling up to $400 million and additional payments in royalties; and in a sale and assignment of certain drug product finishing facility assets and know-how to Siegfried for an undisclosed amount
• Amplyx in its sale to Pfizer for an undisclosed amount
• Bayer AG in its $66 billion acquisition of Monsanto
• Biotheranostics in its $230 million acquisition by Hologic
• Bridge to Life in its sale of certain assets to TransMedics
• BroadSoft in its $1.9 billion acquisition by Cisco
• Calimmune in its acquisition by CSL Behring for an upfront payment of $91 million, plus potential future milestone payments of up to $325 million
• Centerview, as financial advisor in connection with the acquisition of Chinook Therapeutics by Novartis for up to $3.5 billion; the $3 billion acquisition of Audentes Therapeutics by Astellas; the $2.3 billion acquisition of Ra Pharmaceuticals by UCB; the $540 million acquisition of BioSpecifics by Endo; and the $1.1 billion acquisition of Forma Therapeutics by Novo Nordisk
• CinCor Pharma, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, on its sale to AstraZeneca for up to approximately $1.8 billion
• Columbia Pipeline Group in its $13 billion acquisition by TransCanada
• Cornerstone OnDemand in its $5.2 billion sale to Clearlake Capital Group
• Counsyl in its acquisition by Myriad Genetics for $375 million in cash and common stock
• Dunamu, a decacorn and the operator of the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Korea, on general US corporate matters and various transactional matters
• Dyax in its $6.5 billion acquisition by Shire
• Ellie Mae in its $3.7 billion acquisition by Thoma Bravo
• Formation Biologics (doing business as Forbius) in its acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb
• Forty Seven in its $4.9 billion acquisition by Gilead
• Golden Hour Data Systems in its sale to ZOLL Medical, an Asahi Kasei Group company
• Gracell Biotechnologies in its $1.2 billion sale to AstraZeneca
• Hanwha in its acquisition of Hanwha SolarOne; its $25 million equity investment in Overair, a spinoff of Karem Aircraft; and various strategic minority investments and related commercial transactions
• Horizon Therapeutics in its approximately $28.3 billion sale to Amgen; in its $3.1 billion acquisition of Viela Bio; and in its acquisition of Tepezza for an upfront cash consideration of $145 million, plus potential future milestone and earnout payments contingent on the satisfaction of certain regulatory milestones and sales thresholds
• HP in its definitive agreement to acquire Poly (formerly known as Plantronics)
• Idenix Pharmaceuticals in its $3.85 billion acquisition by Merck
• Immunovant in its deSPAC business combination with Health Sciences Acquisitions Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC)
• Impax Laboratories in its $700 million acquisition of Tower Holdings, its operating subsidiaries and Lineage Therapeutics
• Kraft Foods Group in its $55 billion merger with H.J. Heinz to create The Kraft Heinz Company
• Lengo Therapeutics in its sale to Blueprint Medicines for up to $465 million
• Levvels, a joint venture between Dunamu (a crypto decacorn) and Hybe (a record label and talent agency for artists including BTS and Justin Bieber), on general US corporate matters and various transactional matters
• Lion Capital and Bumble Bee Foods in the $1.51 billion proposed acquisition of Bumble Bee Foods by Thai Union Frozen Products (later withdrawn)
• Lion Capital in its acquisition of Spence Diamonds, a Canadian diamond retailer
• LG Electronics on various corporate and venture capital-related matters
• Meredith in its $2.85 billion acquisition of Time; the $2.825 billion sale of its Local Media Group to Gray Television; and its spinoff and sale of National Media Group to IAC’s Dotdash
• Morgan Stanley, as financial adviser in connection with the $18.5 billion acquisition of Livongo Health by Teladoc; the $3.3 billion acquisition of Poly by HP; and the $1.7 billion proposed acquisition of iRobot by Amazon (later withdrawn)
• Neogene Therapeutics in its up to $320 million sale to AstraZeneca
• Nexon on general corporate and regulatory matters
• NHN on general corporate and restructuring matters
• Nikkiso in its acquisition of ACD, Cosmodyne, Cryoquip and Cryogenic Industries from Cryogenic Industries and its affiliates for a cash consideration of $438 million
• Paidy in its $2.7 billion sale to PayPal, which was named M&A Deal of the Year at IFLR’s 2022 Asia-Pacific Awards
• Perella Weinberg Partners, as financial adviser in connection with the $614 million acquisition of Cascadian Therapeutics by Seattle Genetics
• Portfolium in a stock and cash consideration acquisition by Instructure valued at approximately $43 million
• ProfoundBio in its $1.8 billion sale to Genmab
• Prothena Biosciences in its sale of Neotope Neuroscience to Novo Nordisk for an upfront payment of $60 million in cash, and up to an additional $1.23 billion in cash upon the achievement of certain development, commercialization and sales milestones
• Qatalyst Partners, as financial adviser in connection with the $3.4 billion acquisition of Verifone Systems by an investors group led by Francisco Partners and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation; the $2.1 billion acquisition of Imperva by Thoma Bravo; the $1.94 billion acquisition of Apptio by Vista Equity Partners; the $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit by Google; the $10 billion merger of Inphi and Marvell; the sale of Vonage to Ericsson; and the $1.7 billion acquisition of Sumo Logic by Francisco Partners
• Quanergy in its $970 million deSPAC business combination with CITIC Capital Acquisition, a SPAC
• RayzeBio in its $4.1 billion sale to Bristol Myers Squibb
• Riman Korea on general corporate and regulatory matters
• SendGrid in its $2 billion acquisition by Twilio for an all-stock consideration
• SK Global Chemical in a 50-50 joint venture with Saudi Arabia-based SABIC for a total investment of $595 million
• Sucampo in its $1.2 billion acquisition by Mallinckrodt
• Turning Point Therapeutics in its $4.1 billion sale to Bristol Myers Squibb
• ViaCyte in its $320 million sale to Vertex
• VelosBio in its $2.75 billion acquisition by Merck
• Vividion Therapeutics sale to Bayer for up to $2 billion

Ro also has significant experience advising investors, such as the Bank of Montreal, the China Investment Corporation and the Korea Investment Corporation, in connection with their investments in prominent global and regional private equity funds.