To be Frank on Technology
By AZAM on March 19, 2008Frank Quattrone is back in Tech business with the launch of Qatalyst a Boutique bank focused on Tech M&A and Private Investments. Frank Quattrone was the most powerful banker in Silicon Valley and carved a well established and entrenched based with a powerful team leaving Morgan Stanley. Frank set up shop with Deustche Morgan and then moved with team to Credit Suisse under favorable terms wherever he moved.
After the tech bubble burst, the government was dealing with public fallout with the market due to enormous decline in the value of assets in market and started looking around for answers. Frank Quattrone was caught up in the mess with allegations which were eventually overturned. The SEC made responded with changes some appropriate and some rather excessive to correct the some areas that needed to be addressed. Frank Quattrone will like to get back into business and Technology to build back the reputation in the industry that was sidelined. The Silicon Valley will be more than happy to welcome him back and work to the Next Big Thing or Deal in Technology.
It kind of Ironic the timing, Elliot Spitzer dragging individuals names and reputations in the financial industry through the dirt through allegations and conspiracies to further his political standing is now removed himself from the bully pulpit and acting on the political stage, and the sign of return of key players that built strong companies in the industry over the years are likely return to business and move ahead.
His first trial in 2003 resulted in a hung jury, but in 2004, a second jury found him guilty and sentenced him to 18 months in prison. The conviction was overturned two years later, however, and prosecutors declined to try him again. The Securities and Exchange Commission overturned a ruling that banned Quattrone from the securities industry for life.
Qatalyst Capital Partners, which will make principal investments in technology companies alongside venture capital and private equity firms; and Qatalyst Partners, an investment banking arm that will advise companies on mergers and acquisitions, raise money and underwrite public offerings.
Frank Quattrone is known to be fully invested in tech from the days at Stanford. There is a story of Frank selling his beat up VW Bus to buy stock in Apple once they presented at the Stanford Business School. The story is quite appealing with the thought of Steve Jobs losing his job at Apple to return stronger than ever. Silicon Valley is land of dreams come true and comebacks from the brink of destruction are common. If it does not kill you, it definitely makes you stronger in the Valley. No doubt, most in the valley would like to see the comeback and the love to see the industry move further into the future.
Frank is the Philly kid starting out at a Philadelphia prep school on scholarship, he made through Wharton at Univ. Penn with honors and earned an MBA from Stanford’s business school. Beginning in 1981 at Morgan Stanley, followed by Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse First Boston, Quattrone helped launch some of the biggest initial public offerings of the 1990s tech boom, including those of Netscape, Amazon, Cisco and Intuit.
“We will serve our clients as a catalyst for positive change by helping them navigate the forces affecting their industries, analyze the implications for them and their competitors, and develop and execute strategies to maximize long-term shareholder value,” Quattrone said in a prepared statement. He will serve as Qatalyst’s chief executive officer.
Qatalyst Partners has applied to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for registration as a broker-dealer and for membership with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the non-governmental regulator of securities firms doing business in the United States. While those applications are pending, Qatalyst will be operated as a division of JMP Securities.
Good Friends of Frank
“The launch of Qatalyst is an important development for the technology industry,” said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google. “Frank and his team bring unparalleled industry knowledge, a unique 25-year market perspective and candid, insightful judgment that CEOs greatly value on important strategic initiatives. I look forward to working with him again and am very enthusiastic about Qatalyst’s prospects for success.”
“There is an enormous opportunity for an independent, high caliber advisory firm focused on the global technology sector,” said Jim Breyer, a partner of venture capital firm Accel Partners. “Frank is truly world-class, both as a trusted advisor and a builder of excellent technology banking teams, and we look forward to working with him and his terrific team at Qatalyst.”
Frank is the Philly kid starting out at a Philadelphia prep school on scholarship, he made through Wharton at Univ. Penn with honors and earned an MBA from Stanford’s business school. Beginning in 1981 at Morgan Stanley, followed by Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse First Boston, Quattrone helped launch some of the biggest initial public offerings of the 1990s tech boom, including those of Netscape, Amazon, Cisco and Intuit.
The Team
The Founding team of Qatalyst are Jonathan Turner, 34, a technology mergers and acquisitions expert recently with QuinStreet; Adrian E. Dollard, 38, a mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Shearman & Sterling; Neil Chalasani, 29, recently with Evercore’s technology, media and telecom group; Brian Slingerland, 30, most recently with Goldman Sachs’ technology, media and telecom group; and Brian Cayne, 26, recently with Vista Equity Partners.
Experience
Over the past three decades, Mr. Quattrone and the teams he has led have advised global technology companies on more than 400 mergers and acquisitions with an aggregate transaction value over $500 billion, and on more than 350 financings that raised over $65 billion. Qatalyst’s founders have advised clients including: Accenture, Adobe, Agilent, AOL, Apple, Amazon.com, Applied Materials, Ascend, Baidu, Cisco, Cypress Semiconductor, Google, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Ironport, Jamdat, KLA, Linear Technology, Lucent, National Semiconductor, Netscape, Nortel, Omniture, Oracle, Orbitz, PCCW, Riverbed, Shopping.com, ST Microelectronics, Submarino, Synopsys, SynOptics, 3Com, VeriSign, VERITAS, Webex, Xilinx and Yahoo!
Categories : TechQuattrone summed up by saying “My partners and I are passionate about the opportunity to build a world-class firm whose global network of relationships and high quality, responsive, independent, senior level advice can make a significantly positive long-term difference for our clients.”
Tags : , Amazon, apple, Cisco, Frank Quattrone, Google, Netscape, Qatalyst, Technology Banking
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