hires
Google's best hope in the
Yahoo takeover battle is to have nothing happen. A Yahoo, weak but independent, providing just enough competition to keep antitrust cops off Google's back, is the best outcome. To assure that, CEO Eric Schmidt has turned to the unlikeliest of layabouts:
investment banker Frank Quattrone, who's trying to make a comeback after having an obstruction-of-justice conviction overturned. How frustrating for the hard-charging Quattrone: In this assignment, he'll only succeed by assuring that a deal
doesn't come to fruition.
comebacks
Having cleared his name of obstruction-of-justice charges, former Credit Suisse tech investment banker Frank Quattrone
is launching his own boutique firm, Qatalyst Partners. Several big Valley names volunteered quotes for the
press release. It's not surprising that Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who's made his own moral missteps, would be forgiving of Quattrone. But Gideon Yu, Facebook's CFO, makes a more curious appearance. He gave a statement applauding Quattrone's partner Jonathan Turner, not Quattrone himself. But still, it amounts to an endorsement. Does Yu really think Quattrone did nothing wrong? Or, as a minister's son, is he just expressing the highest form of the Valley's belief in the power of redemption?
frank quattrone
TIM FAULKNER —
Frank Quattrone continues to rehab the perception that he is the poster child for corruption in the late-90s tech boom by following the path of his late-80s counterpart Michael Milken, the Drexel junk bond king: remaking himself as a philanthropist. The former Credit Suisse First Boston investment banker, who helped bring Netscape, Cisco, Amazon, and many other notable tech companies public, has been
named Chairman of the Board of the San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation, a charity close to his heart and his wallet.
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friends of frank
Feel the love for onetime Valley investment mandarin Smilin' Frank Quattrone, as the
San Jose Mercury News extracts numerous complimentary quotes from those eager to make a buck with the man and/or terrified of his potential return. With his
many pals paving the way for an easy comeback, Quattrone is rumored to be planning a combination investment bank and private equity fund that may raise something like $3 to $5 billion. Somewhere in the gleeful chittering, you can almost hear that new bubble inflating.
crime
If his criminal charges are all dropped, Frank Quattrone
could collect $100 million in back pay from his former employer. As long as the major investment banker (who blew up the dot-com bubble with IPO funding) stays clean for a year, he's golden. Great, story over, next criminal.
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Valleywag
venture capital
"My experience with the justice system opened my eyes to the horrific plight of wrongfully convicted prisoners, most of whom don't have the resources to regain their freedom by proving their innocence." — Frank Quattrone, former Credit Suisse First Boston investment banker, in a statement released after federal charges for obstruction of justice were dropped. [San Jose Mercury News]
