Tech Banking Tiers

I've done some research but can't find a updated review of various tech banking groups.

From what I've seen, the consensus for top tier seem to be GS SF, MS Menlo Park and Qatalyst. Could anyone shed some light about other BB/Boutique tech groups?

I'm mainly looking for info at associate/vp level and overall group performance/culture but analyst level info/placement could be helpful to other people too.

Thanks!

 

Depends on what your looking for in terms of deal structure, size, scale, etc. If you're more into a strict M&A advisory role then Qatalyst is a good place to be. If you want more range and exposure to the big names, can't get much better than GS SF for Tech.

 

It...definitely can get better. I'd say MS Tech, Qatalyst, and Allen are better than GS Tech. Only Qatalyst out of those shops does pure M&A which you should prefer anyways. Obvi, GS tech is right after that and is top notch.

Allen & Co obvi does very, very well in tech but they're only in NYC. Still manages to pull huge deals from the city though. As either an Associate or Analyst I would go boutique over BB here though MS Tech with Mike Grimes and Drew Guevara are rockstars. Qatalyst gets on every. single. tech merger so there's that along with the small fact that you're working with Frank Quattrone who basically created tech banking and George Boutros.

 
RoleTied:

It...definitely can get better. I'd say MS Tech, Qatalyst, and Allen are better than GS Tech. Only Qatalyst out of those shops does pure M&A which you should prefer anyways. Obvi, GS tech is right after that and is top notch.

Allen & Co obvi does very, very well in tech but they're only in NYC. Still manages to pull huge deals from the city though. As either an Associate or Analyst I would go boutique over BB here though MS Tech with Mike Grimes and Drew Guevara are rockstars. Qatalyst gets on every. single. tech merger so there's that along with the small fact that you're working with Frank Quattrone who basically created tech banking and George Boutros.

Interesting. I didn't know Allen & Co is doing good in tech space. Can you provide more detail? Do they get most deals from NYC/NE tech scene or they are also big player in west coast?

Thx

 

Allen is an incredibly lean shop. It's doing just fine, just take a look at last year's league table. Recently? Etsy IPO is about as recent as it gets.

Allen gets on the vast majority of tech IPOs and many tech M&A deals. Like KingAlpha said, their biggest deal over the last few years was the massive Facebook/Whatsapp merger. Most of their deals are west coast. Look around the forum or just search Allen on the internet. It's a secretive firm but there's a few relatively recent articles about them.

 

If you look at the Etsy IPO, it's GS lead left, then MS, then Allen

Overall, I wouldn't say GS Tech is in a lower tech banking tier than MS/Q/Allen. I think they're right up there with Qatalyst and MS Menlo

Allen does really well, but I still would say places like Allen/CS are in a slightly lower tier below those three

 

Something really strange here. I try to get league table from bloomberg (M&A function, filter to Technology, North America, 2014). Here is the result I get:

Adviser Rank Market Share (%) Total Deal Value Average Deal Value Deal Count Goldman Sachs 1 18 17987 947 19 Deutsche Bank 2 16 16816 1051 16 Credit Suisse 3 14 14382 757 19 Bank of America Merrill Lynch 4 9 8899 1271 7 RBC Capital Markets 5 9 8846 983 9 Barclays 6 9 8791 977 9 Morgan Stanley 7 8 8521 655 13 JP Morgan 8 7 7493 1873 4 Citi 9 7 7085 1181 6 Qatalyst Group 10 6 6068 1517 4 Centerview Partners LLC 11 5 5249 2625 2 Jefferies 12 5 5010 716 7 Lazard Ltd 13 3 2754 275 10 Numis Corp PLC 14 2 2479 2479 1 Evercore Partners Inc 15 2 2002 200 10 Allen & Co 16 2 1596 319 5 Macquarie 17 1 1513 378 4 Stifel 18 1 1513 378 4 William Blair & Co LLC 19 1 1215 121 10

 
KingAlpha:

That table makes no sense..its complete shit. MS would def be highest for 2014 as they worked on the FB/WhatsApp deal which was $19 billion. And QP with 4 deals in 2014? Just go on their website.

The megermarket table makes more sense.

That's why I said it is strange. Just can't believe bloomberg is so wrong on this.

To the guy who throw me monkey shit, I'd more appreciate if you can point out what I'm doing wrong on bloomberg.

 
youayou:

Something really strange here. I try to get league table from bloomberg (M&A function, filter to Technology, North America, 2014). Here is the result I get:

Adviser Rank Market Share (%) Total Deal Value Average Deal Value Deal Count
Goldman Sachs 1 18 17987 947 19
Deutsche Bank 2 16 16816 1051 16
Credit Suisse 3 14 14382 757 19
Bank of America Merrill Lynch 4 9 8899 1271 7
RBC Capital Markets 5 9 8846 983 9
Barclays 6 9 8791 977 9
Morgan Stanley 7 8 8521 655 13
JP Morgan 8 7 7493 1873 4
Citi 9 7 7085 1181 6
Qatalyst Group 10 6 6068 1517 4
Centerview Partners LLC 11 5 5249 2625 2
Jefferies 12 5 5010 716 7
Lazard Ltd 13 3 2754 275 10
Numis Corp PLC 14 2 2479 2479 1
Evercore Partners Inc 15 2 2002 200 10
Allen & Co 16 2 1596 319 5
Macquarie 17 1 1513 378 4
Stifel 18 1 1513 378 4
William Blair & Co LLC 19 1 1215 121 10

I see what's wrong now. Bloomberg puts Internet under industry-communication instead of technology. So my number is just for non-internet tech companies (semi-conductor, software etc)

 

From a number of first-hand discussions with people working within tech IB (take it with a grain of salt):

MS Menlo seems to be generally seen as the best. They are particularly strong in terms of IPOs, generally leading left the biggest deals. Very strong M&A practice as well.

GS SF seems to be thought of as the number two player. Very strong in M&A mandates and lead left often. Relatively close to MS in terms of dealflow.

Qatalyst is quite strong as well, but doesn't quite compete on the level of the above two. As has been mentioned, they do well in M&A. I have been told that they have often had some trouble competing with the above two.

JPM SF is also a strong player, handling a good number of debt deals, but also scooping up a fair bit of M&A and some IPO plays as well (though less often leading left).

 

Thanks for sharing.

I'm actually more interested in knowing a bit more about other banks in this space since seems like everyone is talking about MS/GS/Qatalyst/JPM only. Do other BB/Boutiques actually do any deals? From associate's perspective, do second tiers banks provide good exposure to industry/deals and pay?

 

I would rank CS / JPM after MS / GS / Qatalyst. Don't know too much about their cultures. Both firms are split into coverage and tech M&A at associate levels and above. I think CS was somewhat of a sweatshop but that's not first hand knowledge

BAML - split into tech and tech M&A. They've been doing well, good deal flow across software, semis and to a lesser extent Internet. Protected Saturday's. Positioned to do very well in this market with their balance sheet / acq financing capabilities

Barclays has a great semis practice so positioned to do well in this market. Really liked the guys there - they seem to have an awesome, fratty culture. They have a few A to As so if that says anything. Integrated M&A group. No current software team in Menlo and pretty junior Internet MDs. If you go there, you're going to be spending the majority of your time in semis comm tech

DB - your put into an industry group as an associate which view as a negative at that stage. They do some deals, pretty good. They used to be a sweatshop, have had a lot of turnover

UBS / Citi - I would go to all of the above firms over these two

Evercore - has been on some big mandates as of late.

Moelis -- Don't see them on to much - they seem to be more middle market focused.

Lazard -- Only seen them on LAZ shit but don't know if they still have that relationship.

Houlihan - solid middle market M&A practice. Pretty much all sellside within SaaS / healthcare IT. They work hard. Former ArchPoint team

Pac Crest - Good boutique. Lots of co-managed equity BS which isn't too exciting. Good culture

Anyone else, feel free to chime in.

 

We see a lot more from MS on capital raises for growth companies. Qatalyst just hired an MD from MS to start their practice in the area. GS is more focused on M&A and GS/MS are pretty close for IPOs for all intents and purposes.

Banking > VC > Tech PE; PM me if you would like any advice I'm happy to help
 

MS technology is strictly better than everything else on the street. Yes that includes GS. almost everything at MS is custom written and designed, basically nothing is off the shelf. apparently, on its own ms tech division is the 25th biggest tech company in the world - which makes it about the size of oracle.

 

Wtf?

This is tech banking, not IT

tallon123:
MS technology is strictly better than everything else on the street. Yes that includes GS. almost everything at MS is custom written and designed, basically nothing is off the shelf. apparently, on its own ms tech division is the 25th biggest tech company in the world - which makes it about the size of oracle.
-- Interview Guides GMAT Tutors WSO Resume Review --- Current: Senior Analyst - Hedge Fund Past: Associate - Tech Buyout Analyst - Morgan St
 

Sounds like you are on the right track. While I don't have names to throw out, I suggest you look beyond tech banks. Your "tech" knowledge won't do you very good as an analyst anyways. Also, you never know what you might find if you branch out. I used to be a tech guy but I have since started to find some other areas quite interesting ... areas that I would have never considered before.

Lastly -- Why limit yourself?

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 

I'm not trying to limit myself at all. I'm certainly going to push hardest to get into a BB program in NYC, but given that I go to a nontarget and do not have a SA position on my resume, I know the odds are not great. I just figured that looking into MMs, I wanted to see what groups might find my experience in tech more attractive than the average ibank. If it won't play a huge role as an analyst, I guess it doesn't matter, but I thought it might make some sort of difference.

As far as BBs go, I'll be applying to LEH, GS, MS, CS, ML, Citi, JPM, & BoA. Any other obvious ones I am missing? I have a few connections at LEH and JPM, but the others I have nothing. Any suggestions for getting a resume into the BBs besides the internet? That's a resume graveyard.

 

I want to but the problem is that they don't hire into corp dev straight out of college. they want you to get i-banking experience or they want you to enter their FTP (similar to GE's FMP), before you can enter corp dev. Hours were variable, from 40-60 on most weeks, 60 not that often as an intern but the analysts in corp dev I worked with were there for that much on crunch weeks.

If I don't go ibanking I'll likely end up doing a rotational like FTP at EMC, or FMP at GE, or Raytheon's program. Not a bad gig as the hours are a heck of a lot better and the cost of living helps make up for some of the lost monster bonus you get at a bb or mm.

 

Why don't you look into boutiques in Boston area. There a good amount, just look up regional on this website and you will find a thread. It is a good idea though to go to the websites to make sure they actually do IB

 
WellsFargoBaker:
this is like asking us to rank a bunch of toilets, no matter how good they still get shitted on
A Wells Fargo "Baker"? My firm is looking for a baker to do in-house brunches, what will it cost to lure you to my firm? Must be competent in: Potato Nests with Caviar, Salmon Crepes, and Chocolate French Toast and Eclairs.
 

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