Taubman leaves Morgan Stanley
Wow, didn't see this one coming.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/taubman-to…
Since the financial crisis, Morgan Stanley has been struggling to squeeze more money out of its sales and trading business, which has suffered as the bank has pulled back on taking risk.On Monday, the bank unexpectedly announced a shake-up in its senior management in an attempt to increase the profitability of that business. One of Wall Street’s most prominent deal makers, Paul J. Taubman, will leave the company, while another executive, Colm Kelleher, will become the sole head of sales and trading.
Mr. Kelleher’s power within the bank will be rivaled only by Greg Fleming, who oversees the wealth and Asset Management units, and James Gorman, the chief executive.
Mr. Taubman has been one of the most successful mergers bankers, having helped broker transactions like Comcast’s takeover of NBC Universal and Wyeth’s $66.8 billion sale to Pfizer. But perhaps his most important deal was working to secure an emergency lifeline from the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group of Japan that kept Morgan Stanley afloat during the financial crisis.
Under Mr. Taubman, Morgan Stanley has consistently come in first or second in Thomson Reuters’ listings of top mergers advisers, dueling with Goldman Sachs for the top spot.
Yet while Mr. Taubman did a good job of keeping Morgan Stanley in the top tier of investment banking, Mr. Schorr said trading was likely to remain a major focus of the company’s leadership for some time.Mr. Gorman agreed. He wrote of Mr. Kelleher in an internal memo: “His unique skill set and experience in Global Capital Markets, as well as sales and trading, make him ideally suited to lead the institutional securities businesses.”
Investment bankers may benefit from one aspect of the timing of Mr. Taubman’s departure. His staying until the end of the year will give him a voice in setting banker bonuses, which will be paid early in 2013.
Anyone want to comment on how this may shake up MS' storied M&A franchise?