UBS Built One of Wall Street’s Largest Tech Banking Teams. Deal Flow Has Yet to Catch Up.
UBS has made one of the most aggressive pushes into technology investment banking among major global firms in recent years. Since 2023, the bank has hired approximately 20 senior bankers across its Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) group, including both sector coverage and product specialists, as part of a strategy to build a top-tier platform in a market historically led by U.S. competitors.
Nearly two years into the buildout, deal flow appears limited based on public activity, raising questions among some observers about the return on investment and UBS’s broader strategy for growing its U.S. investment bank.
UBS does not publicly break out revenue by business group, and no official data is available on the TMT unit’s recent financial performance. However, unverified estimates shared in online industry forums suggest the group may have generated less than $20 million in advisory fees since 2023. If accurate, that would represent a meaningful decline from peak levels previously attributed to the team under earlier leadership. This figure could not be independently confirmed.
That earlier team, led by Jason Auerbach, was widely viewed as a key contributor to UBS’s U.S. advisory franchise during 2020 and 2021, with some third-party estimates placing its peak annual contribution in the hundreds of millions. Auerbach departed in 2022 to join SVB Securities and later moved to Moelis following SVB’s collapse.
Since then, UBS has rebuilt its TMT group with a new leadership team. Laurence Braham, who joined from Barclays, now leads Tech, while Neil Meyer, also a Barclays alumnus, oversees Media and Telecom. UBS separated the group into two sector verticals and opened a Menlo Park office to strengthen its presence with West Coast clients.
The hiring campaign included a number of managing directors such as Steve Pettigrew, Richard Hardegree, Sean Lynch, Pete Contrucci, Ethan Sawyer, and Alejandro Palacio, among others. A notable portion of the new hires are believed to have prior experience at Barclays, reflecting the backgrounds of several current leaders within the group. UBS also promoted several internal executive directors to managing director and retained a small number of senior professionals from Credit Suisse and legacy UBS.
UBS has reiterated its commitment to its long-term investment banking strategy, with a continued focus on sectors viewed as having strong growth potential. Some market observers suggest that broader macroeconomic headwinds, including muted technology M&A activity, elevated interest rates and a soft IPO market, may have contributed to the group’s slower start.
Some observers believe the TMT unit is now among the largest of its kind in the U.S. by managing director headcount. Yet despite its scale, UBS has not been prominently credited as a lead advisor on many recent high-profile technology transactions, based on publicly available deal records. Much of the group’s activity to date appears to have been concentrated in leveraged finance and sponsor-related transactions, many of which are believed to have originated from other groups within the bank.
UBS has publicly reaffirmed its ambition to grow its share of the U.S. investment banking fee pool, with TMT positioned as a central pillar of that strategy. The 2025 hires of Evan Raine and Taylor Henricks reflect the firm’s ongoing focus on enhancing its M&A capabilities within the group. Ultimately, the success of UBS’s investment may hinge on how quickly the expanded team can translate client relationships into revenue and whether the internal structure enables consistent execution over time.
UBS has aggressively expanded its Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) group since 2023, hiring approximately 20 senior bankers, including sector specialists and product experts. This effort, led by new leadership such as Laurence Braham (Tech) and Neil Meyer (Media and Telecom), aims to establish a top-tier platform in a market traditionally dominated by U.S. competitors. The group has also opened a Menlo Park office to strengthen its West Coast presence.
Despite its scale, the TMT group has yet to achieve significant deal flow, with unverified estimates suggesting less than $20 million in advisory fees since 2023. This marks a decline from the peak contributions under previous leadership, such as Jason Auerbach, who departed in 2022. Broader macroeconomic challenges, including muted tech M&A activity, high interest rates, and a weak IPO market, may have contributed to the slower start.
While UBS has reiterated its commitment to growing its U.S. investment banking presence, the TMT group’s success will depend on its ability to convert its expanded team and client relationships into consistent revenue.
Sources: Growth of UBS??, An Overview of Technology Media and Telecom (TMT) - Part 2 of 2, An Overview of Technology Media and Telecom (TMT) - Part 2 of 2, Wells Fargo vs. UBS, An Overview of Technology Media and Telecom (TMT) - Part 1 of 2
Can you stop dude
Touch grass and talk to huzz
Who is huzz and what does huzz want?
Torched lol
We understand you got laid off, but there has to better uses of your time namely trying to get a new job. It's also pretty clear you aren't currently at UBS given you are citing TMT and citing hires across both M&T and tech, those teams are completely separated by now. Give it a rest, it sucks that the legacy UBS/CS people were pushed out but complaining about it on WSO isn't going to solve it:
You seem irritated. You good?
Yes I just need to keep defending the team until I exit
Not a UBS person, but I think people across WSO are generally tired of hearing the same talking points about tech hires not working out over like 20 posts across the past month. WSO gets it, it's just beating a dead horse at this point. Also, the UBS tech is making new non-Barclays hires in 2025 makes it seem like UBS Tech internally also gets it, which makes these posts even less value-additive.
Yes, just very annoying to continously see the same things being discussed, especially when it's very clear the points being repeated are old and stem from saltiness over being fired and/or not being favored by the leadership. Again, sucks for the legacy UBS/CS people, but that's just the nature of banking. Also already exited to PE, so not sure what commenter below is alluding to. Contrary to popular belief from your propaganda, a simple LinkedIn search for UBS Tech exits in the past year from Tech, which includes firms like AKKR, FTV, and Clearlake.
Keep deflecting from how the group has performed. They will need wholesale changes to help them stabilize
Why aren’t they sourcing deals, is the Tech market that dead?
There has to be at least one $10 million a year revenue MD with all the hiring, right?
Doubt it
They bought in like 12 MDs; based on this forum ,the answer to that question is no. Will say some of the MDs were okay to good while at Barclays; some were clearly over the moon and on a downward trend. Shocked at how bad the hires turned out because Barclays tech wasn't an elite team at Barclays, but certainly had some flow.
Evan and Taylor could very well be the next group heads
Tech and MnT have done so badly that all the good MDs in other productive groups are quitting because they know the bonus pool is going to be ugly because these groups dont perform.
Have it on good authority that both teams have lower revenue this year than last, and last year was obviously an abject failure.
These groups are so bad they are causing a GB wide brain drain. Avg MD quality is so low now
Wow that is shocking. Can you imagine being such a bad group that you cause the collapse of the entire region?
They spent recklessly and made a massive bet on these two groups. I think they just got very unlucky that both these seniors didn’t work out and that interest rates weren’t cut fast enough
Looks like they scaled headcount but forgot to scale revenue
Solid read
Sunlight is the best disinfectant
They are still rebuilding and rebuilding takes time won’t happen overnight
Been rebuilding since 2021. Complaints justified
Everyone joined in end of 23/end of 24. I do not know what timeframe that you're referring to. Don't be a baby.
Rebuilds happened since 2021. UBS Tech flow has been down since then, the only thing it's been good for has been exits since then. Brief period of IMO the best culture on the street between like that period of 2021 - very early 2023, but those seniors and a bunch of the people there are laid off. Idt UBS Tech culture seems bad comparatively but from everything on this forum and what I've heard it's way below that 2021-2023 level.
It's an issue of they didn't need to rebuild and could have just kept the legacy CS team and dropped the ball
tldr thx
Firing of legacy UBS/CS people = people mad. Favoritism of newly brought in Barclays people = legacy UBS/CS people more mad. There is very little live work overall, relatively speaking, and all of the live work is done by a few, mostly legacy Barclays, individuals. Bunch of senior MD hires in 2023 and 2024 from Barclays that haven't delivered revenue. In the past year, based on information cited on this server (I assume this group has been heavily discussed enough that they likely don't have any others), only 1 billion+ sell-side total was reported, despite 10+ MDs, and it was as a joint financial advisor. I am not sure as to the exact dynamics of that deal since not at UBS, but I think it's both reasonable that people posting here are overly salty about UBS and that the group doesn't have great flow.
Regardless, the only two things that can be confirmed: there are exits to PE from the group (earlier post cited Clearlake, AKKR, and FTV within the past year; seemingly 3/8 of the NYC analysts last year so reflective of broader exits) and that the group has very little weak M&A flow(deal logic will confirm this assertion; deal logic generally shows it's a weak coverage group at UBS America's). Seems like everything else is arguable on this forum.
3 for 20 congrats
Someone should just copy-paste this into every UBS Tech discussion on this forum. Also goes to show how repeated the discussion is, given someone seemingly not at UBS can summarize the group so well.
3 exits 2is from class of 22 1 is class of 21 so not all from the same class
Can anyone name the people that got fired from these groups? Seems like most think it’s one of them non-stop posting and since they aren’t shy about naming people or trashing the firm and pushing out other details over the last year they should be open to being named as well. Will also give potential employers a heads-up as to risk around these folks and grudges they hold.
2 MS pretty quickly….clearly a nerve. Hit me with a SB if you want me to set up an alt account where you can provide an anonymous tip as to who these guys are that have hijacked our beloved WSO platform over the last year while beating the same topic and points relentlessly. Debating a reward as well like the Wild West. One good turn deserves another and found people strike a different tone when either bonafides are established or a lens is put on their careers…
Interesting energy here. Everyone’s so eager to name the people who got laid off. How about we name the ones who didn’t? You know, the folks still collecting checks while UBS imploded in tech, lost mandates, and became a punchline on this forum.
If we’re shining a light on “risk to employers,” shouldn’t we be warning people about the ones who stayed, ran this into the ground, and are now busy reshuffling PowerPoints to explain away two years of failure? Let’s get those names out too. Equal accountability, right? Or is it only “grudges” when you call out bad leadership?
Set up the alt, I’ve got a few for you.
So now we’ve got these very sad, very low-energy posters DEFENDING UBS Tech, can you believe it? A group with no meaningful deal flow, no visible pipeline, and no clear direction. Total disaster, folks. They’re in the comments like ‘But they’re rebuilding, but they’re hiring’ — sure, and I’m rebuilding MySpace. Please. It’s like watching someone wax a car with no engine. Looks nice, goes nowhere! These defenders — and I say this respectfully — would’ve called WeWork a buyout target. Not smart! From what I’ve seen, UBS hasn’t led a real tech deal since Tiger King was topping the charts and the whole country was hoarding toilet paper. The only thing growing is the headcount of ex-Barclays MDs and a fantasy about being relevant. If you’re defending UBS at this point, you’re not a banker, you’re writing investment banking fan fiction. If you’re still defending UBS, you’re not in banking - you’re in denial. Sad!
UBS is DEAD. Source: I work there
Lmao WSOs favorite group
How can that many MDs hires be complete and utter failures…
Been a terrible year for UBS across multiple fronts: regulatory past and present; new risk issues; US awful performance… and now looking forwards to largest job cuts in years in Autumn.
Get out before market is awash ..
Post intern leaving round going to be huge
I heard their LevFin group is absurdly oversized. They have basically fallen from being arguably top 5 in the product last year to barely being top 10, all whilst doubling their junior headcount. They were recruiting like crazy all last year, seems like a tough spot to be in.
I mostly feel bad for the juniors whose careers are getting crushed from lack of dealflow
Tech banking revenue is in the gutter, not mention that Barclay’s tech franchise has been trash for years - don’t make any sense to cull the CS tech bankers and replace them with subpar Barclays guys.
Potentially the focus is to personally make money, not to have the group make money
Bump
Exits for this year aren't fully updated, but a quick LinkedIn search shows me 1 went to FP (13.5Bn fund size),1 went to PSG (6Bn fund size), and 1 went to HIG (5.5Bn fund size), just out of the people who put their team name on their taglines. 3/~8 NYC analysts going to a UMM/well-known MM seems reflective of pretty good exits relative to UBS, especially when accounting for the fact that 1) not all LinkedIn profiles of the analyst 2's leaving are updated by now, and 2) not everyone puts group on LinkedIn.
That’s so terrible. You are more likely than not, to have no exit. Who would willingly sign up to this
Exits in my group are so bad people are either staying even though they would rather leave or quitting with nothing lined up.
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