Blake Downing Email & Phone Number

Palo Alto, Ca

Savoy is a direct decendent of Downing Associates, and is an investment banking partnership engaged in private equity financings, M&A, and expert witness testimony. Partners have been popular lecturers in Santa Clara University’s MBA/undergraduate entrepreneurship courses.

Palo Alto, Ca

Bayard is currently a four person partnership that jointly reviews and performs due diligence on both public and private companies. Each partner makes equity investments on his/her own behalf.

Palo Alto

Uniphase Sale of United Technologies Photonics to JDS to become JDS-Uniphase (which grew in valuation from $200 million to $100billion). Kidsoft Private financing for this children’s educational software company. Park Scientific Instruments Private financing for this semiconductor instrument company using atomic force microscopy. IPEC Acquisition for this semiconductor equipment company.

Palo Alto, Ca

Deposed/testified in a wide variety of cases. Represented plaintiff in a suit between one of the largest microprocessor companies and its leading competitor. Represented plaintiff in a suit seeking damages from a large US bank for mismanagement of equity portfolio. Worked with Cornerstone Research, prominent academics and others. Areas of testimony include securities valuation, entrepreneurs roles, venture capitalists role, boards of directors roles, due diligence and portfolio management.

Palo Alto, Ca

Downing Associates was a private market investment banking services firm for small and mid-sized corporate transactions.  Assisted corporate clients in mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships and private financings. Served on the boards of several private companies. Testified as expert witness in securities and corporate finance litigation on subjects such as valuation, disclosure, and due diligence. Cases have included large multinational corporations and a variety of financial institutions. Institutional clients have included investment firms such as TA Associates, Volpe & Welty (funded by Hellmen & Friedman), Pyramid Ventures, Phoenix Partners and Associated Venture Investors. Corporate clients have included public and private companies, with revenues in hundreds of millions of dollars. Taught MBA courses in Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University. Selected consummated transactions:• Komag: Acquisition for leading thin film disk company• Tencor Instruments: Private placement of securities for a founder prior to the company’s acquisition by KLA to form KLA-Tencor.• United Technologies Photonics: Sale to JDS-Uniphase, a leading optical communications company that grew from $200m to $100b.• Tandon: Sale of thin film disk division to Western-Digital• Dastek: Venture financing of thin film head company; sale of thin film head company • FleXus: Sale of instrument company• Seeq: Sale of division of semiconductor company• Solid State Micro Technology Sale of semiconductor company• Performance Semiconductor: Sale of certain assets of semiconductor company• The Complete PC: Sale of PC company• Ghz Technologies: Venture investment by Summit Partners

Santa Clara, Ca

Teach entrepreneurship at the Leavey Graduate School of Business. Two stints: from 9/90 to 6/92 and 9/2012 to 12/2012.

San Francisco, Ca

RS&Co specialized in equity financings for emerging growth companies. Over the 1980’s, RS&Co generally ranked as one of the top 4-5 underwriters of initial public industrial equity offerings in the US. Limited Partners included all of the name partners of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and numerous other noted investment professionals at KPC&B and elsewhere. During my tenure, RS&Co grew from 17 to 120 employees, raised and managed $150 million in venture capital funds, and underwrote some $3 billion in public and private equity offerings. Subsequently, it continued its successful growth with cumulatively, 400 equity offerings raising $18 billion, and 140 mergers totaling $15 billion, employing over 1,000.• Equally active in Research, Corporate Finance and Venture Capital. Regarded as top analyst and investment spokesman in the US for computer peripherals during the period 1981-85. Spoke extensively at conferences for institutional investors.• Played leadership role in sponsoring RS&Co's initial entry in 1981 into financings for the emerging microcomputer, software and peripherals industries.• Responsible for generating, screening and evaluating venture deals. Jointly responsible for such investments as Cypress Semiconductor, Komag, Mentor Graphics, Wordstar International and Tencor Instruments. Participated in investment decisions as a floating member of the investment committee, and monitored a number of companies through board meetings and on-site visits.• Lead role in IPOs for such companies at Seagate, Quantum, Wyse, Altos, Emulex, Silicon Systems, Standard Micro Systems and Cipher Data Products. Active role in IPOs for SUN, 3Com and others.

Mba, Marketing, Finance & International Business

Master'S Degree, Economics

Completed Economics PhD comprehensive field theory examinations.

Ab, Economics, Psychology

Activities and Societies: Phi Beta KappaAwarded University and Departmental Honors in both departments