Hey guys,
I'm currently a 2nd year at a MM bank in an M&A group. Through the deals I've been on, I've become really fascinated with software / SaaS based businesses. My current bank isn't particularly strong in that sub-vertical.
Does anyone with more experience in the space know what the best groups are on the street for software M&A specifically?
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Pretty much Qatalyst, GS, MS, JPM and Blair. Software is a big category so of course there are others that do a nice deal occasionally but those are the main ones.
Those are the top, I’d add Jefferies and BAML as well
Are you on the West Coast?
For west coast, Q/GS/MS are far and away the best. JPM/CS/CVP/EVR/LAZ are all good. BAML/Citi are decent. PJT has an office out there but don’t know much about them. Rest primarily do MM deals like Moelis or are irrelevant
Centerview does very little in software - should not be in the same bucket as JPM nor above BAML who advises Salesforce.
Agree, CVP on the west coast is more focused on bio-tech than software type deals
Wasn’t trying to bucket them per se, just suggesting they’re all good options. Tbh the drop off from GS/MS is significant enough from JPM/CS that it doesn’t really matter how you bucket the rest. OP only asked for the best groups. Any BB will get on large transactions because of balance sheet relationships and most EB will get some action with independent board advice
Depends on your banks size and what group you want to be in... M&A or Coverage in TMT.
A few people here named some BBs that I may recall only do coverage work and not the majority of the M&A work.
A few top shops: - Qatalyst - Centerview (Palo Alto) - Credit Suisse - Goldman Sachs - JP Morgan - Morgan Stanley - FT Partners (smaller deal size on avg) - Evercore (Menlo Park)
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