Best TMT Groups in LA, NY, and SF

What are considered to be the best TMT groups in LA, NY, and SF individually; please provide both BB and boutique. I know different banks choose to have their TMT groups in different locations, so was just curious where they were. Where is the best TMT group of all!

92 Comments
 

Serious comment here, but I heard the Stifel Hoboken office is the newest team to beat for TMT.

Source: guy I used to know told me after 6 beers. He used to work in finance.

 

We can base best off many different things. For example, you can base best off pay, exit opportunities, hours, workplace happiness, deal flow, sub-sector expertise, nightly seamless allotment and many other things. Be clear on what matters to you and then people can help you answer your question. Ultimately, the best place of all is the one that wants you on their team. People who ask questions like this tend to be a bit young-minded/immature in their career thought process.

 

I'm really trying to find the TMT group that would provide the most experience if I wanted to continue doing M&A in Tech and Media as a career. I want to know which groups would be the best for that in NY, LA, and SF. I've heard MS Menlo Park and GS NY thrown out there as top contenders, but wanted to hear if anyone knew about any TMT groups in LA that were worth exploring as well?

 

NYC has a fair amount of tech also, so I wouldn't discount looking at opps there.

I agree with ranking GS / MS / Qatalyst as the "top" groups and the other BBs as 2nd tier, but you could have a great experience at a variety of places. There are several non-BB shops that are active in tech and would provide you with a great experience as well, including a few elite boutiques (Evercore, Jefferies, Houlihan, RBC, William Blair, Raymond James, probably a bunch more I'm missing...).

 

For me it's GS TMT / MS TMT in SF/Menlo locations. Then it's everybody else.

You need to stop worrying about who the best group is and first go see which ones actually want to hire you. Corp dev. to investment banking isn't the easiest transition, so I would focus on getting the job offer and then have us help you compare which offer to accept. Banking interviewers are going to question your work ethic, deal flow, and why you want to hop back to the sell side.

 
"sailSF"Stop worrying about who the best group is and first go see which ones actually want to hire you. Corp dev. to investment banking isn't the easiest transition, so I would focus on getting the job offer and then have us help you compare which offer to accept. Banking interviewers are going to question your work ethic, deal flow, and why you want to hop back to the sell side.

Good advice in general. Also keep in mind that being in a slightly less "prestigious" group where you get along great with your team is probably going to be better for your career than being in BlackRock/GS and not getting along with your team.

 

In SF, MS absolutely dominates on equity offerings for tech companies.. GS comes pretty close. For tech M&A, Qatalyst and GS are on a lot of the biggest deals. MS is good too, and Allen & Company is very up and coming.

Basically if you want to do tech, GS, MS and Qatalyst are probably your top bets. If you want to do purely tech M&A, Qatalyst is your best bet without a doubt (they only do M&A). Good luck getting offers at these places though.

 

EVR has strong tech and telecom practices. Liontree (although I've heard analysts don't really actually do much analytic work here, and deal credit is mostly due to the senior guys' connections).

 

A little bit from guys who worked with them.

Obviously deal credit always comes from senior guys. I mean in the sense that liontree analysts aren't the ones doing the heavy lifting in terms of stuff like modeling/valuation. If you look at liontree's transactions, they're usually co-advisors with other banks.

 
archer

GS MS CS JPM and Qatalyst win a majority of high profile deals and everyone else fights for the rest. Jefferies does pretty well for themselves in middle market as well. BAML seems to be on quite a few mandates also, but haven't heard the greatest things about working there.

That

I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing. See my Blog & AMA
 

Michael Grimes at MS is number 1 for tech out of Menlo. If you look at all the big tech deals over the last several years, MS has been lead left on most of the largest ones (except for twitter) and it's got a good shot at getting the Alibaba IPO too (6 banks are leading it so far with no announcement of who's lead left, but CS and MS have been long time bankers of Alibaba). Keep in mind though that this is just a tech group, not TMT. Goldman is 2nd for tech (San Fran) and JPM (San Fran) is a distant 3rd. For tech boutiques, Frank Quattrone's Qatalyst is the best out there and Allen and co is very reputable too.

Not sure how the media and telecom side plays out but from seeing the deals recently I'd say it's a toss up between GS/MS/JPM. All of them are on the pretty big deals, and It's fair to say that GS is probably seen most commonly as number 1, but JP has been having a great couple of years in the telecom space and has been on pretty much everything.

 

GS TMT NY and MS M&T NY and tech west

"They are all former investment bankers that were laid off in the economic collapse that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have no marketable skills, but by God they work hard."
 

To expand, I believe GS does more media/telecom in NY and more tech in SF. But at the analyst level, their is a lot of cross-staffing between the offices so everyone gets exposure to everything.

 

GS still regarded as top dog in the sector, although MS is also a dominant player in terms of deal flow (especially in internet and digital media deals) and prestige. CS and JPM are just a notch below, with both of these also on a lot of good upcoming deals. Compensation is pretty standard across the three - you'd have to go to Qatalyst or another boutique to see any drastic difference.

 
tmtbankerGS still regarded as top dog in the sector, although MS is also a dominant player in terms of deal flow (especially in internet and digital media deals) and prestige. CS and JPM are just a notch below, with both of these also on a lot of good upcoming deals. Compensation is pretty standard across the three - you'd have to go to Qatalyst or another boutique to see any drastic difference.

Thanks! Would you rank JPM above CS or vice versa for a particular reason? That's the main thing I wanted to get out of the question.

 

especially out of the LA office.

Media tends to be cyclical, but it shouldn't matter all that much at the analyst level. Agree with BBMandA, go to LA and watch Mahmood (global head of media) just dominate the sector.

 

Who's this Mahmood? (not quite sure who r u referring to).

Also, what does everyone mean by Media being cyclical? When is it hot? When is NOT?

 

Like 37 years old or something. Former DLJ guy, and didn't even start banking until 2 years post Harvard Law. So basically like Global Head of Media in 10 years.

His 'deputy' John Momtazee is americas head of broadcasting and like 32-34 years old. His bro ran the HCA deal for KKR. What a phenomenal finance family that would be.

 

I heard Morgan Stanley, though broken up between Tech and Media/Telecom was strong in all three verticals too.

What are the exit opps at JPM in TMT like? How does it compare to other industry groups at JPM and vs. GS and Morgan Stanley?

How do CS and Lehman stack up?

 

I'll tell you right now. I've said it 1x and i've said it 100x:

The strength of the industry group does not matter anywhere near as much the strength of the firm.

Also, when discussing strength, people often forget that deals at GS and MS are more often large-cap flashy M&A deals, where places like LEH and CSFB skew much more heavily towards fixed income.

That will have a profound impact on your experience. Group X or Y at GS or MS may not be #1 in the X or Y League Tables, but you better believe GS and MS will more ofen be involved in indsutry-changing M&A deals when they come around...

 

"Media group in UBS in NY any good?"

Jeff Sine the group head is very well respected and has a lot of clients. The LA office brings some in as well. Tough culture though or so I've heard (no firsthand experience so take this with a grain of salt).

 

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