Capital instincts (2003)

[...]... new specialty bank The result: Thomas Weisel Partners, one of the few independent investment banks of its size in the world Two other surviving San Francisco start-up investment banks, Wit Capital (now Wit 7 8 CAPITAL INSTINCTS Soundview after its own acquisition by, unsurprisingly, Soundview Corp.) and W.R Hambrecht, have been trying to make names for themselves by pioneering new techniques for taking... their firm’s investment clients But they like talking to the press in order to see their name in print or their face on the air, theoretically adding prestige to their firm at the same time A 1 2 CAPITAL INSTINCTS clever and lazy daily beat reporter could get an entire story by calling a favorite analyst and asking, “What’s new?” I no longer recall what I had contacted Readerman about (other than to... was now rapidly deregulating the banking business, and merger mania in banking began to resemble nothing so much as a great white shark feeding frenzy Most of the New York (and international) 3 4 CAPITAL INSTINCTS banks had always been something like pelagic sharks, feeding across the entire ocean of industries, specializing nowhere They had now decided to settle into Northern California for an extended... BankAmerica Although McColl adopted the name, it was soon clear that Bank of America was being run from North Carolina At the time of the merger, the press reported widely that McColl had assured 5 6 CAPITAL INSTINCTS BankAmerica’s former CEO, David Coulter, that he would be next in line to head up the merged conglomerate Coulter lasted but a few months before being pushed out (One observant publication... has not been as fascinated by investment bankers as by the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists that start the entrepreneurial process rolling But the investment bankers play a critical role in keeping the process going, in elevating the status of entrepreneurial companies and providing them with a long-term source of capital through the public markets As we have seen more recently, they are also in... sought first the material welfare and security of the hive, and presumably they have their reward Men are different They propound mathematical theorems in beleagured cities, conduct metaphysical 11 12 CAPITAL INSTINCTS arguments in condemned cells, make jokes on scaffolds, discuss the latest new poem while advancing to the walls of Quebec, and comb their hair at Thermopylae This is not panache: it is our... odds Weisel has a huge number of admirers, as well as a few detractors (mostly competitors) The one thing that almost all friends agree on is that he is one tough SOB He thrives on adversity 13 14 CAPITAL INSTINCTS One of the primary ingredients contributing to his success is the fact that he enjoys taking on tasks that most people feel to be absurdly difficult, and often succeeds at them Weisel looks... asked for some of their poker chips, and became increasingly louder and more obnoxious At first Weisel’s group ignored them But after a while, Binion told young Thomas to go back to his room 15 16 CAPITAL INSTINCTS These city slickers weren’t your normal desk jockeys They started planning The trio started quietly dividing up the group, deciding who could take whom (“I’ll hit this guy on the head as... He’s smart, and he’s calculating He seems to treat everything like a chess game, studying the different angles, calculating his moves several steps ahead Anger him and he’ll respond Let him 17 18 CAPITAL INSTINCTS down and he’ll castigate you loudly Stand up to him and you’ll earn his respect In these ways, he’s just like most of Silicon Valley’s (maybe the world’s) top executives Criticism seems to... as little as one year The investment banks are the firms that take those companies public, and they were thriving It had become the new glamour field It wasn’t as legendary as the high-profile venture capital business, but it was (and is) no less critical a component of the Silicon Valley financial machine Some of the technology analysts at the investment banking firms, like Mary Meeker at Morgan Stanley, . banking firms, like Mary Meeker at Morgan Stan- ley, Jack Grubman, formerly at Salomon Smith Barney, or Henry Blodget, formerly at Merrill Lynch, had become media stars for 2 CAPITAL INSTINCTS recommending. Blake Jorgensen, Robert Kahan, Jack Kemp, Tim Koogle, Dick Kramlich, Terry Lee, Derek Lemke, Jack Levin, Glenn Lowry, Peter Lynch, Jerry Markowitz, Karl Matthies, Jessica Miller, Dick Moley, Leonard. technology was the fastest in the world. Although rel- atively small (with revenues of roughly $1 billion, compared to Merrill’s revenues of nearly $18 billion in 1998), Montgomery had very cozy relationships