Biography: Mergers and Acquisitions

Faiza J Saeed is a partner in the Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP corporate department. She specialises in mergers and acquisitions, including takeover defence, proxy contests and board crisis counselling. Faiza has extensive deal experience in many industry sectors including advising the board of directors of Morgan Stanley in its conversion to a bank holding company and a $9 billion equity investment by Mitsubishi UFJ; Kraft Foods in its $16 billion unsolicited bid for Cadbury and its $2.6 billion divestiture of the Post cereals business; Terra Industries in defending against the $4.6 billion unsolicited bid from CF Industries; VeraSun Energy in its $1.5 billion merger with US BioEnergy; Johnson & Johnson in its successful unsolicited $1.8 billion bid for Cordis; and White Mountains in its $1.4 billion acquisition of the life insurance businesses of Safeco.

She has advised on many significant deals in media and technology including representing DreamWorks SKG from its formation to its $1.6 billion sale to Paramount Pictures; DreamWorks Animation in its $4.1 billion spin-off IPO; Steven Spielberg in the formation of his studio with Reliance; Lycos in its $12 billion merger with Terra Networks; Time Warner in numerous transactions, including most recently its divestiture of Time Warner Telecom; Viacom and its MTV Networks in a joint venture with RealNetworks to create Rhapsody America; and Vivendi in its $46 billion merger with Seagram and the resulting Vivendi Universal in numerous follow-on acquisitions. Faiza has advised many targets of hedge fund activism including CSX in its proxy contest with The Children's Investment Fund and 3G Capital; Kraft Foods in its negotiations with Nelson Peltz and the Trian Group; Time Warner in its defence against Carl Icahn; and TKT in its contested $1.6 billion merger with Shire Pharmaceuticals.

In 2006, Faiza was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (Davos). She has also received professional recognition from Corporate Board Member magazine, Crain's New York Business ('100 Most Influential Women in NYC Business'), Dealmaker magazine, New York Magazine, The New York Times ('Wall Street's 100 Masters of the New Universe'), The National Law Journal ('40 Under 40') and The American Lawyer magazine ('45 Under 45' and a 'Dealmaker of the Year' in 2000 and 2005). She is cited as one of the country's leading lawyers in the M&A and media and entertainment areas in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business in 2008 and 2009 and Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business in 2008 and 2009. In addition, Faiza was recognised in The International Who's Who of Merger & Acquisition Lawyers in 2008 and 2009, The Best Lawyers in America in 2009 and 2010 and was also named in Lawdragon as one of the 500 leading dealmakers in America.

Faiza received a BA in Economics and Molecular Biology with Highest Distinction from the University of California at Berkeley in 1987, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a JD magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1991. She joined Cravath in 1991 and was elected a partner in 1998. Faiza currently serves on the visiting committee for Harvard Law School.