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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Take Shots Embrace the Grind Be a Nice Person Keep Tilt External Be Serious About Your Legacy Dealmaking wisdom from some investment banking grandee? Actually they’re tips for beginning World Series of Poker players—offered up by 15-time champion Phil Hellmuth, aka “The Poker Brat”. Hellmuth’s victory in the WSOP 30 years ago almost single-handedly transformed […]
How vital was Shrek to the financial survival of DreamWorks? “That little green ogre”, DreamsWorks co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg once said, “saved us”. Not surprisingly, Shrek also provided the inspiration for the deal toy when DreamWorks went public. Check out the DreamWorks IPO tombstone, and join us for a quick, escapist retrospective of this and other movie-inspired deal […]
The recently completed 2019 NCAA college basketball tournament brought home the widely shared, abiding passion for the game—-the game being the addictive, old-school relic Settlers of Catan. Stars of two tournament teams, Payton Pritchard of Oregon and Grant Williams of Tennessee, confessed an obsession with Settlers, with Williams even being approached courtside, prior to the […]
The recent focus on Uber and Lyft was a reminder to us that though we’ve devoted a number of galleries to IPO deal toys over the years, we’ve neglected, at least recently, the “ride” portion of the ride-sharing equation. Provided below is a belated follow-up to our two previous posts, “Car & Motorcycle Deal Toys” […]
The firm that helped launch the careers of Ken Moelis, Paul Singer, and Stephen Schwarzman—among many others? It no longer exists. But we see reminders of DLJ around our office every day—along with countless other firms that, regrettably, are also no longer with us. Over the years we’ve received numerous requests to share deal toys done for these […]
The deal toy most likely to be stolen? No, it isn’t the one shown above. It isn’t even the one we designed to recognize the IPO of Facebook…or Twitter…or Google. But it is here—and rightfully so. The size of a deal toy isn’t always a function of the value of the underlying deal–but there is a fairly well-established […]
Mix together David Bowie, Conor McGregor, and Severus Snape. Throw in some buffalo chicken and tequila-infused doughnuts. Then add a portion of cryptocurrency—and you’ll then have a preview of our latest post. Take a moment to check it out. Alghanim Industries, which acquired Wendy’s MENA franchise rights in this 2015 transaction, also operates outlets […]
Warcraft… Clash of Clans… Samurai Siege… CryptoKitties… Call of Duty… These are just a few of the titles associated with publishers featured in our gallery of gaming deal toys. Take a quick look… 3 acquisitions have been identified as crucial to Microsoft’s new, multi-platform game streaming service–its “Netflix for games”: Havok (2015), PlayFab (2018), and […]
Lehman. Bear. Chase Manhattan. SSB, H&Q, CSFB….. And also Goldman and Blackstone. They’re all names featured in our latest gallery of Dinosaur Deal Toys. From 1995: The hotel interests involved here were purchased by a joint venture that included Starwood Capital Group and Goldman Sachs. Eller Media Company officially changed its name in 2001 to […]
This blog might (rightfully) be the last place you’d seek insights into the dynamics of global, cross-border M&A activity. So we’ll skip any analysis and simply note that 1) cross-border deal activity continues to surge this year, and 2) there’s therefore an increased chance you might want a deal toy incorporating a cross-border theme. Just […]
Our latest gallery of IB artifacts revisits an era we had previously glimpsed in the inventively titled posts “Dinosaur Deal Toys“, “More Dinosaur Deal Toys“, and “‘New’ Dinosaur Deal Toys“. Take a quick excursion back to a time featuring names like Broadview, First Boston, BT, and a firm nicknamed “Wasserella”. Prior to this 2000 stock […]
An LBO. A British cop. A flying taxi. Two Facebook rejects. See these stories, and more, as we unfurl our gallery of landmark tech deal toys. Michael Dell managed to upstage the $25 billion LBO in which he took his company private in 2013 with this 2015 deal. It remains the largest tech acquisition in […]
This week’s blog post—our 100th—highlights deals and deal toys from France, Holland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Spain. Take a quick look. Sweden’s Candyking specializes in “pick ‘n’ mix” confectionery. Swedes consume about 16 kilos of candy per person annually. (The world’s highest per capita consumer? Germany.)Valencia-based GH Electrotermia produces induction heating equipment.The Linth-Limmern hydroelectric system is […]
Our latest gallery of European deal toys features ghosts, princesses, and Bulgarian water. Take a quick tour, and as always, if you have a tombstone project pending or in the works, be sure to contact those responsible for these designs: our London office. DFS (Duty Free Stores) was co-founded by Robert Miller—recently recognized as the […]
He’s been assaulted with a bazooka, drilled with a football, and unceremoniously sucked into a black hole–and he’s now the centerpiece of one of the deal toys featured here. Take a moment to catch up on some recent European deals and deal toys you may have missed— outside your group, office, bank, or country. The […]
