June 15, 2016

Meet the bankers on the massive Microsoft-LinkedIn deal

Meet the bankers on the massive Microsoft-LinkedIn deal

Portia Crowe

Jun. 13, 2016, 4:46 PM 13,124 2

Microsoft is buying LinkedIn in a $26.2 billion mega deal – and one bank is helping the company do it.

Morgan Stanley is the sole adviser to Microsoft on the deal.

Morgan Stanley’s lead bankers on the deal are Mike Wyatt, head of global technology mergers and acquisitions, and Drew Guevara, head of global technology investment banking, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Wyatt is a managing director at Morgan Stanley. He has been with the firm for 22 years, according to his LinkedIn profile, and has advised on more than 125 transactions, including McAfee’s $7.7 billion sale to Intel in 2010.

Guevara joined Morgan Stanley from Bear Stearns in 1995, according to his LinkedIn profile, and has helped bring companies – including Ingram Micro, SanDisk, and Seagate – public. He also counts Amazon, Yahoo, and Zynga among his clients, according to the profile.
LinkedIn hired two advisers, the San Francisco-based tech boutique firms Qatalyst Partners and Allen & Co.

Veteran dealmaker Frank Quattrone, George Boutros, who took over as CEO from Quattrone earlier this year, Marcie Vu, and Jonathan Turner worked on the deal for Qatalyst:

  • Quattrone worked for Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse before cofounding Qatalyst, and has advised on more than 500 transactions. His clients include Apple, Google, eBay, and Oracle. He led the IPOs of Amazon, Cisco, and Intuit, according to Qatalyst’s website.
  • Boutros took over as CEO of Qatalyst in January. He has previously worked for Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley. Boutros has advised on more than 400 transactions, according to Qatalyst’s website, including Google’s purchases of YouTube and DoubleClick and Google’s deal for Motorola Mobility.
  • Vu, head of consumer-technology banking, worked with LinkedIn on its IPO in 2011. She joined Qatalyst in 2013 from Morgan Stanley, where she was head of consumer internet banking. She’s also worked on the IPOs of Facebook, Google, and Alibaba, according to Qatalyst’s website, and on mergers and acquisitions, including CNET’s deal for CBS, OpenTable’s sale to Priceline, and Zappos’ sale to Amazon.
  • Turner is a founder and copresident of Qatalyst overseeing consumer technology and software banking. He previously worked for Credit Suisse. He advised Tumblr on its sale to Yahoo, Twitch on its sale to Amazon, Xoom on its sale to PayPal, and Autonomy on its sale to HP.
  • Ian Smith was the lead banker on the deal at Allen & Co., according to a person familiar with the matter. He has worked with tech companies, including Facebook, Amazon, Airbnb, and Dropbox, according to his LinkedIn profile. Earlier this year, tech media startup The Information named Smith Silicon Valley’s favorite banker.