Faiza J. Saeed is Cravath’s Presiding Partner. She advises public companies, boards of directors and special committees in connection with M&A, corporate governance and crisis management, including takeover defense and proxy contests.
Saeed serves as a Trustee of The Paley Center, NewYork‑Presbyterian, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation, and on the Boards of Directors of the Partnership for New York City and The Paley Foundation. She is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations and The Economic Club of New York.
Lawdragon Honors
Saeed has extensive deal experience across many industry sectors, including significant depth in media/tech and biotech. Notable matters include advising:
- Disney in its $85 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox, overcoming an interloper bid by Comcast to its original $66 billion agreement; the $10.6 billion sale of the Fox Regional Sports Networks to Sinclair; the $3.47 billion sale of its interest in the YES Network to an investor group including the Yankees and Sinclair; the pending combination of its Hulu + Live TV business with Fubo; and its support agreement with Third Point and successful proxy contests against Trian and Blackwells;
- Wiz in its pending $32 billion acquisition by Google;
- Paramount’s special committee in the $28 billion merger with Skydance;
- Endeavor’s special committee in the $25 billion take‑private acquisition by Silver Lake;
- Viacom’s board committee in the $30 billion merger with CBS;
- 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, the $10 billion investment by Berkshire Hathaway and its dealings with Carl Icahn;
- Time Warner in numerous matters, including its $109 billion acquisition by AT&T, its investment in Hulu, its defense against an unsolicited proposal from 21st Century Fox (which was withdrawn), its defense against Carl Icahn and its merger with AOL;
- Thermo Fisher Scientific in its $20.9 billion acquisition of PPD and its $3.1 billion acquisition of Olink;
- Precision Castparts in its $37 billion acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway;
- Buckeye Partners in its $10.3 billion acquisition by IFM and the sale of its holdings in VTTI to Vitol and IFM;
- Biogen in its $7.3 billion acquisition of Reata Pharmaceuticals;
- Global Blood Therapeutics in its $5.4 billion acquisition by Pfizer;
- The Ricketts family in the $26 billion acquisition of TD Ameritrade by Charles Schwab;
- Northrop Grumman in its $9.2 billion acquisition of Orbital ATK and the $3.4 billion sale of its federal IT and mission support business to Veritas Capital;
- AveXis in its $8.7 billion acquisition by Novartis;
- InterMune in its $8.9 billion acquisition by Roche;
- Illumina in its $8 billion acquisition of GRAIL, its proxy contest against Carl Icahn and its interactions with Corvex;
- Hasbro in its $4 billion acquisition of Entertainment One (eOne), the sale of its eOne film and TV business to Lionsgate and its successful proxy contest against Alta Fox Capital;
- Southwest Gas in its proxy fight and settlement agreement with, and its response to an unsolicited tender offer from, Carl Icahn;
- Scotiabank in its $2.8 billion acquisition of an equity interest in KeyCorp;
- Hailey Bieber in the $1 billion acquisition of rhode by e.l.f. Beauty;
- SPANX in its sale of a majority stake to Blackstone;
- TaskUs’s special committee in the proposed $2 billion take-private acquisition by Blackstone and the company’s co-founders;
- Yahoo’s board committee in the $4.48 billion acquisition of Yahoo’s operating business by Verizon;
- DreamWorks Animation in its $4.1 billion acquisition by Comcast, its acquisition of Classic Media, the formation of Oriental DreamWorks and its spin‑off IPO from DreamWorks;
- Morgan Stanley’s board during the financial crisis, including the $9 billion investment by Mitsubishi UFJ;
- Vivendi in its $46 billion merger with Seagram and in numerous follow‑on acquisitions and investments, including USA Networks, MP3.com, Houghton Mifflin and EchoStar;
- Sapient in its $3.7 billion acquisition by Publicis;
- Terra Industries in its defense against a hostile bid from CF Industries (which was withdrawn), its $4.6 billion proposed sale to Yara and $5.2 billion topping bid by CF Industries;
- Pentair in its $10 billion inversion/Reverse Morris Trust merger with Tyco Flow;
- Lycos in its $12 billion merger with Telefonica’s Terra Networks;
- Starbucks in its acquisition of Teavana, its commercial arrangement with Oprah Winfrey and its investment in Square;
- KKR’s board committee in KKR’s conversion to a corporation and KKR’s $2.6 billion acquisition of KKR Financial Holdings;
- Quibi in its sale to Roku;
- Amblin Partners in its strategic partnership with Alibaba Pictures and the investment by Comcast, and, together with Steven Spielberg, in its formation with Participant Media, Reliance Entertainment and Entertainment One, and the formation of its predecessor studio with Reliance;
- DreamWorks SKG from its formation to its $1.6 billion sale to Paramount Pictures;
- The family of Charles Schulz in the sale by Iconix of its interest in “Peanuts” to DHX Media, and in the acquisition of “Peanuts” from Scripps;
- Kraft Foods in its $2.6 billion Reverse Morris Trust divestiture of Post cereals to Ralcorp, and in its negotiations with Nelson Peltz;
- WuXi in its proposed $1.6 billion merger with Charles River;
- TKT in its contested $1.6 billion merger with Shire; and
- Lundbeck in its acquisitions of Chelsea Therapeutics and Synaptic Pharmaceuticals.