Hey guys,
I know there's a few topics on this, but most of them are quite old. I was wondering what you guys think are the top tech groups in SF, and which have the best exits? I know there's GS, Q, MS, CS, etc. but how would you rank them? Thanks for any help.
| +140 | How to stop feeling like shit for not making it in IB? | 55 | 15m | |
| +105 | If Tik Tok is forced to sell, what banks do you think would be involved in the deal? | 51 | 3m | |
| +66 | Updated LA Banking Scene (2024) | 49 | 9h | |
| +57 | Why Is It Called Investment Banking? | 19 | 19h | |
| +38 | Ranking banks that went under | 19 | 13h | |
| +32 | A strategy for SA applicants late to the game like myself | 15 | 3h | |
| +31 | UBS Actual Buyside Exits 2024 Post-Integration | 9 | 3d | |
| +31 | Burnt Out M&A ASO | 17 | 13m | |
| +29 | Relevance of A-Levels for U.K. London recruiting | 21 | 9h | |
| +26 | Series 79 Help / Tips to Pass The First Attempt | 11 | 1d |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
Let people debate the rankings all they want, I'm sure it won't completely devolve into a complex shitfest debate between equity and m&a advocates. Here's just a few objective pieces of info on the M&A side:
Facebook's banker is Allen & Co. Google's banker is Lazard. Apple's banker (if they were to ever use one for M&A) is Goldman. Amazon's banker is Lazard. Twitter's banker is Allen & Co. Microsoft's banker is (probably) Goldman.
Edit: Brief commentary about the banks conspicuously misisng (in no particular order):
MS - Definitely elite in the space, they don't happen to be the first option for this particular short list of clients, but they still have a shit load of cool clients. Equity is a really differentiated product for them in the space. Also, they did WhatsApp, so they're probably having the best year of anyone mentioned here on a purely monetary basis.
CS - Still relevant for sure, which is something I would have been surprised to say a couple years ago. Advised Lenovo on both of its mega deals at the beginning of this calendar year.
QP - Mostly differentiated for all its sell side work, where they get basically all the top VC funded mandates (except WhatsApp!). Definitely have access anywhere they want it. Haven't heard as much out of them lately, but I also don't keep track like I used to. In my mind, they'd be the second sexiest place to go of the companies I've mentioned
Is that even true though? Most if not all of the companies you listed haven't hired any bank for an acquisition in a while. Most of them were sell-side advising the companies that were selling to those large tech companies.
Yes, it's true. What's your basis for saying this?
There's no real reason to rank out of MS / GS / Q - all are top tier and you'll get the same opportunities out of all three banks. CS is a tier below with JPM in my opinion, though if I had to choose I'd most likely go with CS because they do M&A within the tech group (they recently moved the co-head of M&A to the SF office, and David Wah now sits in SF as well) and from what I've heard, JPM does not.
Regarding Lazard and Allen & Co., most of Lazard's tech is actually done out of Boston and the SF office does little to no work. And if this ranking is purely based off exit options, Lazard tech and Allen & Co. offer far fewer opportunities than MS / GS / Q and arguably not even better than the other bulge bracket tech groups in the bay area. Also a little misleading to call Allen & Co. TWTR's banker, considering GS led their IPO and Anthony Noto is now their CFO.
If you're interested in megafunds, then GS is your best best. If you're more interested in going to a tech company, growth, VC or MM PE, you'll be fine coming out of any of the BB tech groups in the bay area. Just my opinion, so take it for what it's worth.
[Edited/Deleted. Some glaring misinformation in his post, but fuck it, I don't care enough to get into it.]
What about the tech groups in NYC? Are the exits good if you are 100% sure you want to go to a tech company, growth, VC, or megafund PE?
This is very useful info. I am trying to know more about Citi Tech in SF. Any thoughts on how big is the team and hows their deal flow?
Well, wouldn't you say Qatalyst has been on most of the biggest tech deals this past year? Just looking at their website it seems as if they've done better than any other TMT group this past year.
Though Qatalyst has been successful for sure, I'd actually argue that they've been on very few of the top mandates in the last year, especially by comparison to how large a share of the top deals they used to do. There was a year where it literally felt like they did everything, now it seems kind of quiet by comparison. Off the top of my head and in no particular order, I'd say the most consequential deals in the tech space in the last year have been:
-Facebook/WhatsApp -Apple/Beats -Microsoft/Nokia -Lenovo/Motorola/Google -Lenovo/IBM x86 -Facebook/Oculus -Google/Nest -Oracle/MICROS -Zillow/Trulia -VMWare/AirWatch
Only a couple of these are QP deals.
No OpenTable? LSI? Fusion.io? how do you define "consequential"? Also - tough to ding Qatalyst for deals that had no real banker involvement at all - which is a lot of those you list. They're doing just fine.
Rank the technology groups in SF Bay Area (Originally Posted: 01/06/2013)
I'm curious as to how fellow monkeys would rate the SF tech groups? What do you guys think of this ranking? Comments?
Morgan Stanley (Menlo) Goldman Sachs JP Morgan Credit Suisse Deutsche Bank Barclays (Menlo) Citi (Palo) Bank of America Merrill Lynch (Palo) UBS ...
Jefferies RBC Raymond James Piper Jaffray Wells Fargo Houlihan Lokey Stifel Harris Williams
Qatalyst Blackstone Lazard Perella Weinberg Partners Centerview Sagent Advisors Pacific Crest Union Square Advisors JMP Code Advisors
I don't know where Moelis would go. Their Palo office is extremely small.....
ranking on what basis?
its a long list dude
I guess in terms where you would want to work for, in terms of these buckets. I know some elite boutique or MM could be better than some of the lower BBs. Just want to know where people would take an offer from if they got to chose.
You seriously have Qatalyst below Wells Fargo?
It's obvious that it's sorted by bulges, MMs, and Elite boutiques/boutiques
hows Jefferies SF office?
bump. Would be interested to know more about this
My take. Keep in mind not all of these guys are tech (some serious HC groups out here):
GS Qatalyst MS
CS (yes, really) EVR Centerview (HC) JPM (could arguably be higher post Dell, but huge group and not as good "pound-for-pound") Barcap PWP Moelis PA
Jefferies GHL (not what they are in NYC) DB HLHZ (group in SF isn't what it is in LA) Harris Williams Wells / Stifel / RBC (ok advisory practice at Stifel ties with poor advisory but good capital markets banking at the other two)
William Blair Piper Sagent
BAML doesn't do a lot of advisory out here. Don't know much about Citi or Lazard. Moelis PA could be much lower, let's see how it goes.
Force rankings like this are highly inaccurate because they make it seem like differences are bigger than they actually are. For example, did you know that more kids made it to the buyside last year from Barcap than MS tech? Or that the Silver Lake associate who worked on the Dell deal came from CS? Ultimately, for a great analyst experience you want to go to a bank that's heavy on advisory work (you don't learn as much on debt/equity),with a culture of whatever exit opps you want (buyside, bschool, A-A), and highly talented associates and senior analysts you can learn from.
I only have my own perspective and what I've heard on the Street (California, not Wall) but let me know if you have questions. Also please don't flame me if you disagree with the ranking, like I said, this is a stupid exercise and varies heavily particularly for banks with multiple groups.
Did some asking about Lazard. Second bucket, very good. Can't emphasize how good Qatalyst is. Would definitely take over MS tech, probably over GS TMT as well but that's partially because of a personal preference for small firms.
Anyone have any more recent info/thoughts on this? Would be particularly interested to know how CS and JPM stack up/compare with one another?
GS, Qatalyst, MS/JPM in this order for tech, per OP's question.
Anyone willing/able to discuss how JMP and Canaccord Genuity fit into this picture? It would be much appreciated.
Best SF Groups? (Originally Posted: 07/25/2014)
Threads I dug up on Google are pretty outdated.
I don't think I'll be very interested in tech but it looks like it's the route I might have to go if my end goal is buy-side NYC. Let's keep it relatively simple. Who are the clear winners when it comes to east coast MF placement?
Obviously GS/MS TMT are top dogs but I'm curious about the others. Any boutiques worth mentioning?
Financial Technology Partners
Qatalyst Partners
bump
Best Tech group in SF and Menlo Park? (Originally Posted: 02/06/2010)
Please rank: MS/CS/BAML/GS/UBS/ etc...
do a search. this has been discussed before.
By tiers right now, in terms of dealflow + prestige:
Tier 1: GS TMT, MS Menlo Park Tier 2: CS SF, BAML Palo Alto, JPM SF, Barcap Menlo Tier 3: UBS SF, DB SF
BX Menlo Park and Qatalyst in SF are relatively new boutique groups that may be tech powerhouses in a few years.
What is GS TMT in NYC like? Do they do technology or is technology exclusively run out of their SF office?
Looking to recruit for next summer, wanted to see if there was any new perspectives on this. Particularly looking at the bulge brackets, as I might have ins at CS and GS that I could leverage, with CS being the more likely of the two.
Labore fuga minus cum dolores et delectus. Corrupti voluptatem tempore nisi assumenda ipsam. Impedit sit qui iusto dolore et laborum. Voluptatem in magnam eos quod numquam dolores numquam quibusdam. Et vel doloremque nam libero minus autem.
Repudiandae odit corporis est excepturi. Tempora architecto repellat aspernatur ad sunt. Rerum dignissimos eos enim aut. Quidem minima a aperiam. Dolorem ut iure numquam molestiae. Aliquam quo nihil veniam blanditiis officiis.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Magni quod eius voluptas quaerat assumenda aliquam eum. Totam at eum omnis illum facilis eaque. Ullam libero iste provident omnis.
Sequi fuga voluptas harum cumque omnis. Dignissimos et omnis illo quis exercitationem. Quia hic ab dicta molestiae inventore voluptas iure. Voluptatem aut quisquam dolorem dolorem laborum sint perspiciatis. Consequatur voluptates voluptatum est quis vitae eveniet. Itaque id unde saepe non ad.