Thomas Weisel Partners was founded in January 1999 by Thomas Weisel (founder of Montgomery Securities), Frank Dunlevy, J. Sanford Miller, Derek Lemke-von Ammon (all also former Montgomery employees) and Alan Menkes. The firm calls itself a "merchant bank" as opposed to an investment bank, a nod to founder Weisel's New England roots and an allusion to the fact that the firm seeks to have a stake in all clients through an equity fund. San Francisco-based Weisel Partners has grown very quickly, with over 66 partners after only one year in business. The firm did 54 IPOs in its first year of business, mainly in the technology arena. Weisel Partners has offices in New York, Boston and London.

Revenge! Sweet, lasting revenge!

Weisel founded Montgomery Securities in the 1970s and sold the company to Nationsbank in 1997 for $1.2 billion (Weisel himself netted between $100-$120 million). The original plan was for Weisel to have significant control over Montgomery's operations, but the plans quickly changed when NationsBank merged with Bank of America in 1998. Weisel and NationsBank CEO Hugh McColl clashed repeatedly over the direction of the new firms securities business. Weisel finally quit in the summer of 1998, the last straw reportedly being a dispute of the running of the NationsBank Montgomery Securities' junk bond business. Weisel immediately began cobbling together his own firm. Some observers said that Weisel, who was already very wealthy and had numerous outside interests, got back into the game mainly out of a desire to stick it to his former colleagues.

You worked at Bank of America? Me too!

Weisel took so many former employees, Bank of America, the new owner of Nationsbank Montgomery Securities, took umbrage. BofA filed a lawsuit in February 1999, alleging unfair hiring practices and theft of secret information. BofA pointed out that large numbers of Weisel Partners professionals came from the old firm: almost one-third of the research staff, more than half the corporate finance staff and exactly half the private equity staff. Additionally, the suit said that BofA refugees didn't leave empty handed, taking pitch books and other sensitive information with them. The suit is being arbitrated by the National Association of Securities Dealers.

Renaissance man

Weisel is described as intense and driven by those around him. He has an AB from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard, and is an accomplished athlete. He has won numerous biking and speed skating championships and sponsored American Lance Armstrong in the 1999 Tour de France. Lest you think him a jock, note that he is also a frequent financial contributor to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and has a wing at the museum named after him.

Well-rounded boutique

Departments at Weisel Partners include research, investment banking, sales and trading, private equity and private client services. The research department covers the technology, business services, media and communications, consumer products and healthcare. Corporate finance has been involved in many high-profile deals in the firm's short history. IPOs include: Cysive (October 1999), Exactis (November 1999), Proxicom (October 1999), Rainmaker Systems (November 1999) and Z-Tel Technologies (December 1999), all lead or co-lead managed by Weisel Partners. Merger deals include Yahoo's acquisition of Geocities (May 1999), Polycom's purchase of Atlas Communications (December 1999) and AwardTrack's purchase by 24/7 Media (March 1999).

A new partner