Mergers & Acquisitions For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 10

Hiring an Investment Banker

IN THIS CHAPTER

Explaining how investment bankers make a market

Determining how long a transaction should take

Looking at the important factors when hiring an investment banker

During the summer of 2016, I spent three days in New Orleans delivering half-day presentations about mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to groups of business owners and executives. I didn’t want my presentations to sound self-serving, so I purposefully didn’t plan to talk about how to hire someone like me. And guess what? The number-one question I received over those three days in New Orleans was, “How do I hire a good investment banker?”

A fair question! The following section delves into the nature of their work and the role they can play for sellers. It also provides some thoughts on what is (and isn’t) important when retaining an investment banker and concludes with some insights on how to check an investment banker’s references.

Examining the Role of Investment Bankers

Putting it as broadly as possible, an investment banker is a person involved in capital transactions of one kind or another. Some investment bankers are involved in the public markets, some raise debt ...