What is the actual difference between BB vs EB vs MM?
These distinctions just seem super arbitrary and I don't really understand the difference.
Looking at the league tables, Evercore and Barclays have about the same numbers for M&A. Why is Barclays a BB and Evercore considered an EB? Evercore also has equity research/S&T departments, so it's not like they are only advisory (which I've heard people say before is the distinction). Evercore also does various different types of advisory (RX, M&A, ECM, etc) so they seem like they are on the same level as a BB.
Next, what's the difference between a slightly less prestigious EB (ie Rothschild or Jefferies) and a top MM (ie Blair or HL). They are doing similar deals (many of the 'lower' EBs are moving more downstream into 'middle market' deals) and are not too far away on the league tables. Blair also has a PWM, equity research, etc division and a bunch of global offices, so I don't understand why they are considered that different from somewhere like Jefferies.
Can anyone explain this rationale to me? Thanks!
You couldn't find the answer to this anywhere on the internet??
I just Googled literally the phrase "difference between bb eb mm" and found this excellent and accurate article from M&I. Do you have specific questions beyond this?
https://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/boutique-middle-market-bulge-bra…</a">https://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/boutique-middle-market-bulge-bra…
EDIT: Read the article, morons giving MS. Ranking banks is stupid, and the BB/EB/almost BB/MM distinction is mostly talked about by undergraduate students. You'll never hear the fucking term "Elite Boutique" outside of this forum or the analyst bullpen.
yes because they're all the exact same structurally and there's literally no difference in size, headcount, prominence, exits, resources, lending capabilities, clientele or anything at all between any of these EB/BB/MM/BSB/Small Boutique firms whatsoever.
100% man, basically the entire industry is one firm - right?
wow youre annoying lately. Why does your flair say first year analyst btw? We both know ur not
BBs usually cover deals that are at least near the billion thresholds and have holistic capital markets capabilities.
EBs usually don't have capital markets capabilities and only serve advisors, but compete with BBs on large deals. If you look through some of their deals they also do some middle-market deals.
MMs have cap markets but usually compete in the middle market space.
The BB vs EB distinction is first and foremost about the size of the bank. While EBs can compete with BBs in M&A and restructuring advisory since those are basically just a specialized form of consulting with capital markets deals like IPOs the massive balance sheets and distribution channels available to the bigger banks can't be beat. Because of this the EBs are more specialized than their BB counterparts and while many offer a wide range of advisory and even wealth management no EB would ever have a commercial side like many BBs do.
MM is more so just a prestige distinction. It's most often used to describe banks that are similar in nature to EBs but aren't quite "elite" enough to earn the title like Jefferies or Houlihan Lokey. However, the category can also contain large commercial banks whose investment banking division isn't developed enough to be considered a BB such as Wells Fargo or HSBC or even the investment banking services of the big 4 accounting firms. These MM firms rarely land deals as large and complex as the BBs or EBs because of their lack of prestige.
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