Top Tech / West Coast IB?
Which teams are considered top in tech IB, and what's the differentiation between them? No denying that tech IB is probably the most desired industry group, especially in today's markets, so curious to hear about the IB landscape in the space
Qatalyst is the best by a good amount, debatable after that between GS and MS with EVR rounding up the top 4. Not at Q, but am at one of the other 3. MS is back up after Grimes is back post his government stint.
Q is awesome but let's not exaggerate with them being better than GS TMT or MS Menlo... Given the hot IPO market this year (SpaxeX, OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, and Cerebras that just completed its IPO), not sure Q is necessarily the best platform for tech IB
I am at one of GS TMT or MS Menlo, and I think Q still is the better bank for M&A. IPO's are different, BB's will always lead them because of much stronger access to investor capital. UBS Tech was an active bookrunner on Cerebras, they are not a good tech bank. They are only active on tech IPO's because they have unique access to investors through their wealth management arm. MS is the best tech IPO bank with Grimes, he's an absolute beast in running IPO processes with a very strong wealth mangement arm / access to investor capital.
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I think we are talking about overall tech platform. Sure, Q is great in M&A (probably the best, though you definitely don't see them in the crazy large M&As (think Activision/Microsoft, Twitter/Musk, EA/PIF & SL) but given the state of the tech IPO market, an advisory focused shop just can't be regarded as the "best" in tech. Again, nothing wrong with Q and most juniors would probably die to go there given the tech M&A dealflow and comp
Tier 1a - Q (probably the best in tech M&A), GS TMT SF (GS brand is just too strong)
Tier 1b - MS Menlo (Maybe with Grimes back they can return to 1a, still debatable imo - Too heavy of IPO focus and they missed on a lot of large-cap tech M&A snagged by Q or GS TMT SF (e.g., $55B EA/PIF & Silver Lake Take Private, $32B Google / Wiz (GS was the lead sell-side advisor, MS was secondary advisor AFAIK)), $26B Palo Alto Networks/CyberArk)
Tier 2 - EVR Menlo (recent senior GS hires definitely improved deal flow quality), JPM SF (did extremely well last year, let's see if they can keep it up)
Tier 3 - CVP Menlo (doing decent, with some impressive wins last year), LAZ SF (meh, not sure where they are heading. Lost key clients over the last couple of years), MOE SF (churning mostly sponsor-backed software businesses, not that sexy but analysts can still get great exits), BofA PA (Did the Wiz/Google deal but nothing else to write home about)
Tier 4 - Barclays Menlo (very average), Citi SF (recent JPM seniors can actually elevate the group), Tidal Partners (landed some great mandates, still too early to judge)
Tier 5 - JEFF SF, UBS SF, DB SF, PWP SF
This is pretty accurate and on point (clearly from someone who works in TMT!). ive some prospectives here that are slightly different (but broadly in line given I did recruitment for my alma mater for years):
Tier 1: Q, GS, MS - in that order. GS is strong in M&A compared to MS; MS history on IPOs and capital markets for VC backed companies is formidable
Tier 2: EVR, JPM SF
(if JPM keeps up like this they will probably win in M&A with their balance sheet as they did on EA deal; they also have some important sellsides; rebuilding the M&A team after Drago's exit)
Tier 3a: MOE SF (wonder if Jason's sponsor related work slows down given where software is right now)
Tier 3b: Citi (rebuilding practice, might come up; strength in cybersecurity and infrastructure historically; hired Drago out of JPM for M&A and he was a key relationship holder there), Lazard SF (firmly on the way down and probably should be Tier 4 by next year)
Tier 4: Barclays Menlo (historically very semis oriented, that may give them some potential paths to grow given where semis is today), BoA (tonnes of exits at all levels but they have probably deeper potential to invest here in the long term, same as Citi), CVP PA (dont think Jack M has done anything formidable yet to build this, but maybe that changes), PJT (some potential here but remains to be seen; they were on couple of deals last year but out of their NY team which somewhat artifically boosted them up)
Tier 5: Jeff SF (took assignments backing not so good companies, never seen them on anything important except for tipping fee events on back of their buyout work, UBS (no momentum even after recent M&A hires in tech), DB (dismantling slowly with exits, particularly on semis which was their historic stronghold), PWP (has been irrelevant for a while; mostly cap raises out of Europe from what i hear and never seen them on anything important except for couple of fee tip events)
Isn't JPM better than EVR at this point? Also, what's the gap between tiers (say from T1 to T2 to T3)? Will spend the summer at one of the T2/3 names but wondering whether to gun for the T1 firms for FT (if all goes well ofc)
Not that this will impact literally 99% of the people reading this but jpm lost Drago, Pankaj, and Madhu, and a few other MDs. Citi made Pankaj Global Head of Tech (rip all juniors). They obviously hired also a bunch of MDs and you got yourself a switch in the guard. Deals will be fine but won't be the same quality of analysts probably without those
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Qatalyst, GS TMT SF and MS MP are the only ones that matter to be honest
S: Q, GS TMT, MS MP
Big gap
T1: EVR, JPM
Gap
T2: CVP, MOE, LAZ, Citi, BofA
T3: BARC, Tidal, JEFF
T4: DB, UBS, PJT, PWP
T5: RBC, WF
UBS is the best!!!
no
How are mid BBs (BOFA, Citi, Barc) perceived?
Depends on who you ask. I'd say general consensus is that Barclays is top of those three, BOFA is where you go to chill and collect a decent paycheck and who wants to go to Citi. Barclays recently been approaching Q, GS TMT levels according to quite a few people I know in banking.
Congrats on Barc!! No ones from Q or GS would even consider going there lmao
Good luck with Barc bud!
Are you living in a different reality than the rest of us? Decent paycheck at BofA? Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume their west coast office pays the same as the rest of the company AKA shit
LMAO Barclays is the worst of the three
Anyone have insider stories to share at any of these offices? It's always fascinating to me that these groups are such a critical part of IB revenue, but have the size and location of satellite offices.
Yeah I have lots of stories but obv not sharing with you on WSO. And these are not satellite offices at all. Q, GS, and MS are all 50+ people at least
MS Menlo pretty much operates as a separate unit vs other MS IB groups. Which makes sense, given the $$$ they generate and their stature in tech IB. They are probably the most influential group within MS IB (alongside the M&A group, I guess).
Same for GS. Well, it is TMT so no surprise there, plus it is the "sexier" part of TMT (Technology). They are running their own show in SF, even though there are some collaborations with NY TMT but again, most tech IB activity is being done out of the SF office (NY does more media, telecom)
Anyone have insight into PWP SF?
Trash as far as deal flow, but good culture and great pay on par with EVR .
PWP sucks in general
bad
You guys all overlooked the one true answer: PEAK Technology Partners
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