VMware Inc. chief legal officer Dawn Smith and deputy GC of corporate securities and M&A Craig Norris pulled off a complicated, monumental task last year that was part of the largest tech sale in history. And though most headlines focused on the two mega-corporations tying themselves together, VMware deserves recognition for novel structuring of its securities and shares.
In October, 2015, Dell Inc. announced it would buy EMC Corp. for $67 billion. A small wrinkle—EMC owned 80 percent of VMware, a publicly traded company. Smith and Norris worked with outside counsel to figure out how VMware could continue trading shares on the New York Stock Exchange while transferring ownership to Dell.
