Research Reloaded:
/Damaged reputations for the big boys might be opening up more opportunity for the smaller players. We hope so. The big brands were shown to be just B-level ideas with A-level marketing, or even worse when it came to Fixed Income... nice to see some space opened up for tiny upstarts. Note one of the tiny firms was started by a former Deutsche M&A head./
Who are these guys anyway?
With a few exceptions, Sprint Nextels acquisition of Virgin Mobile USA involved a cast of advisers that arent household names in the M&A world.
Sprint Nextel was advised by Wells Fargo Securities, which didn’t crack the top 30 on Dealogics rankings of investment banks by announced U.S. deal volume through July 21. Most of Wells Fargo Securitiess investment bankers come from Wachovia, which Wells acquired last year.
Two little known firms, Foros Advisors LLC and Colonnade Advisors LLC, provided a fairness opinion for Virgin Mobile.
Dealogic has no record of Foros advising on any deals over the past five years. (Deal Journal couldnt even find a listed phone number for the firm). It turns out that Foros is a tiny operation that was recently started by Jean Manas, Deutsche Banks former head of mergers and acquisitions for the Americas.
Colonnade, which is based in Chicago, has advised on 17 small deals — mostly under $50 million — in the past decade, according to Dealogic. Colonnade was started by former J.P. Morgan banker Stuart Miller.
Deutsche Bank also advised Virgin Mobile. As of July 21, Deutsche Bank ranked 11th in announced U.S. deal volume, according to Dealogic.
Post new comment