Frank Quattrone: Back In The Game, Out Of The Spotlight (DELL, HPQ, TXN, NSM)

From Dell DELL and Hewlett-Packard's HPQ battle for 3Par to Texas Instruments' TXN $6.5 billion acquisition of National Semiconductor Corporation NSM, Frank Quattrone has been an influential figure. As the leading investment banker in Silicon Valley, Quattrone has pushed his 30-man operation, Qatalyst Partners, into the number-three spot behind Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. But Quattrone, who was once prosecuted for allegedly interfering with a government probe, does not wish to be in the spotlight. When Andrew Ross Sorkin approached him about writing a column, Quattrone said, “I'd really prefer you didn't write about me.” Sorkin, however, says that Quattrone is hard to ignore. “In the last year, his boutique advisory firm, Qatalyst Partners, has been involved in nearly every major technology merger,” Sorkin writes. Those mergers include the aforementioned unions, as well as Hewlett-Packard's $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm. When speaking to Sorkin, Roger McNamee, a veteran venture capitalist with a stake in Facebook, compared Quattrone to Steve Jobs. “What Steve Jobs is to technology products, Frank Quattrone is to tech banking,” McNamee said. “The best there ever was — period.” Prior to the founding of Qatalyst Partners, Sorkin says that there were questions about whether or not he would be able to salvage his career. “East Coast bankers and executives thought corporate boards would snub his services out of fear of risking their reputations,” Sorkin writes. “But Silicon Valley stalwarts have stood by him.”