Coming up with creative deal toy ideas can be a chore for bankers, especially when they’re faced with the same predictable, stock suggestions. Fortunately there are a number of imaginative–though commonly overlooked— design alternatives. Coming up with memorable deal toy ideas can sometimes be a huge challenge for bankers—and a needlessly time-consuming one. Especially when, […]

(This is another in a series of posts, leading up to The Corporate Presence’s 40th anniversary, that will focus on noteworthy deals we have commemorated). Twitter, Google, KKR, Facebook, Palm, Apple, DreamWorks…. They’re only some of the high-profile IPO’s we’ve commemorated over the years. Why dwell on these tombstones from the past—some of which go […]

(This is another in a series of posts, leading up to The Corporate Presence’s 40th anniversary, that will focus on noteworthy deals we have commemorated). It was known as the “Dare to be Great” speech. And it came to be celebrated as one of Bruce Wasserstein’s signature ploys. Detractors, on the other hand, charged that […]

In the many months since our last round-up of European deal toys, more than a few transactions have come our way. This post only covers a handful of the resulting deal toys we’ve recently designed; but the collection should give you a sense of our design experience and expertise in a wide array of sectors […]

(This is another in a series of posts, leading up to The Corporate Presence’s 40th anniversary, that will focus on noteworthy deals we have commemorated). This Saturday, November 7th, marks the 7th anniversary of the initial public offering by Twitter. This post, celebrating the IPO and its deal toy, was originally published in 2014) Custom […]

(This is another in a series of posts, leading up to The Corporate Presence’s 40th anniversary, that will focus on noteworthy deals we have commemorated). Over the years we’ve designed deal toys and custom awards in many media, including crystal, resin, and wood. This post from 2013 pays special tribute to our one of our […]

(This is another in a series of posts, leading up to The Corporate Presence’s 40th anniversary, that will focus on noteworthy deals we have commemorated). The deal toy shown below has all the virtues of a rectangle design: clean, linear, simple, and above all, straightforward. The deal it commemorates, on the other hand, was anything […]

(This is another in a series of posts, leading up to The Corporate Presence’s 40th anniversary, that will focus on noteworthy deals we have commemorated). “What’s that place called again where the Broncos play?”. That’s the question that was posed the first time we wrote about this deal toy. And at the time, at least, […]

(This is another in a series of posts, leading up to The Corporate Presence’s 40th anniversary, that will focus on noteworthy deals we have commemorated). It seemed almost impossible for any tech company of the 90’s to emerge from the so-called Dotcom Bubble entirely unscathed. In relative terms at least, CoolSavings merely got its hair […]

(This is another in a series of posts, leading up to The Corporate Presence’s 40th anniversary, that will focus on noteworthy deals we have commemorated). Bullwinkle. Dudley Do-Right. George of The Jungle. Three guys who don’t exactly come to mind as “Harvard Material”. But their creator clearly was. See his story below. Jay Ward and […]

(This is another in a series of posts, leading up to The Corporate Presence’s 40th anniversary, that will focus on noteworthy deals we have commemorated). It’s hard to imagine which of these might’ve been more satisfying. Selling your company for $19 billion to a firm that once passed on hiring you… Or signing that deal […]

This post marks the first in a series leading up to our celebration of The Corporate Presence’s 40th anniversary—which officially begins in 2021. But don’t worry: we’ll spare you the usual “landmark anniversary” fare. You know: poignant anecdotes about our founder, first-hand accounts of the early struggles of a small but plucky staff etc. etc. […]

The M&A deals commemorated here involved not only individuals like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, and Robert Iger…but also a Ukrainian immigrant and a former Yahoo engineer. They involved firms like Blackstone, Moelis, Evercore, and Goldman Sachs…but also others such as Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch. As with our other posts on historic deal […]

He’s been called “the greatest investor in history”… “The most fascinating American success story of our time”…. “The inventor and caretaker of a rare persona that has no equivalent in American business”… Who is he? No, sorry…it’s not Ashton Kutcher—not this time, or at least, not quite yet. Good guess though. 50 Cent? Nas? Jared Leto?…Troy […]

Bankers can vastly reduce the downside of closing dinners and other deal toy deadlines by guarding against these 5 common pitfalls. What happened to one analyst’s deal toys —deal toys that were supposed to be given out at a closing dinner that very night—-was more than a little scary. Maybe an even better word, as […]

Our newest gallery of sports-themed tombstones features 2019 deals, as well as some going back as far as 2001. 2001…in other words, the year Conor McGregor (also featured here) was 12 years old. None of these pieces was included in our previous round-up of sports-themed deal toys. Take a moment to check them out.   […]

You go to sleep convinced you’ve pulled off a mega deal…only to find out the next morning that it’s been snatched away from you—in the middle of the night, a continent away. See which deal we’re talking about below in the follow-up to our post on landmark M&A deal toys. This $3.5 billion deal resulted in […]

Europe’s largest office building. New York City’s most expensive rental. The building nicknamed “The Bottle Opener”. The hotel created by feuding blue-blood cousins. They’re all here—and more—in our quick review of iconic buildings and properties. New York City’s most expensive non-hotel rental? It was reportedly a five-bedroom, five-bathroom spread on the 68th floor of the […]

Company’s signature lava lamps provide inspiration for landmark tombstone In honor of the 15th anniversary of Google’s IPO–which falls next Monday, August 19th—we are re-posting this tribute to the 10th anniversary of the offering, and of the deal toy commemorating it. August hasn’t traditionally been the most laid-back month for Google. Last week it announced the […]

The deal toy above dates back to May, 1998—-back to when Smith Barney and Salomon Brothers had merged to form Salomon Smith Barney…and before both would merge once again, this time into Citigroup. As with our previous galleries of Dinosaur Deal Toys and More Dinosaur Deal Toys, this collection celebrates vintage tombstones going as far […]