There was a time when a company with a big deal had only a handful of companies to turn to for advice. But soaring demand for acquisitions, activist investors, and corporate crisis counsel has pushed the circle even further, leading to the formation of more and more new companies.
The most recent example is Collected Strategies, launched by several executives from communications firm Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Catcher, and longtime Bloomberg mergers and acquisitions correspondent Ed Hammond.
“Business news coverage is evolving, whether it’s deals, high-profile crises or ongoing corporate activity,” founding partner Hammond said in a statement. “I also need advice on communication.”
The company started at a time of heightened scrutiny of Wall Street activity. Investment firms have become the focus of outrage from both liberals and conservatives.Although overall deal closings have been sluggish, last year busiest in four years For activist investors who invest in companies and seek change.
The growing need for advice may partly explain the driving force behind the creation of new telecom companies. Investors in such deals are also attracted by high profit margins, given that the main cost is labor.
In 2019, CVC Capital Partners purchased a majority stake in advisory firm Teneo in a transaction valued at about $700 million. Two years later, Brunswick Group sold its minority stake to merchant bank BDT. In the same year, advertising giant WPP Integrated advisory firm Finsbury Glover Hering and Sard Verbinnen establish FGS Global. In April, private equity firm KKR acquired a stake in FGS Global, valued at about $1.4 billion.
Joele Frank is one of the last independent companies. Ms. Frank founded the organization in 2000 and has since served the William R. Hewlett Trust, which opposed the merger of Hewlett-Packard and Compaq in 2001, and the U.S. Confederacy for its merger with American Airlines in 2013. He advises Airways and is central to closing deals.
Among the executives leaving Joele Frank is Scott Bissan, who advised Elon Musk on selling Twitter last year. Jim Golden advised First Republic Bank and Pacwest Bank during this year’s local banking crisis. and Jude Gorman, the company’s chief operating officer.
Bloomberg’s Hammond is continuing the tradition of mergers and acquisitions star reporters turning corporate advisors. The Wall Street Journal reporter Stephen Lipin, who has covered the beat for years, joined the Brunswick Group in 2001 and founded his own firm, Gladstone Place Partners, in 2017. bottom.
