For those interested in the doings of our public relations brethren, M&A division, a fascinating development has surfaced on our annual PR league tables that will appear in next week's edition of The Deal. The usual caveats about league tables aside -- no ranking is completely comprehensive, we're counting numbers of deals not volume or profitability, they're easy to manipulate -- Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher edges ahead of Kekst & Co. for the No. 1 spot.
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Based on our count, Joele Frank's firm picks up a 20.3% share with 79 deals versus Kekst's 19.5% with 76 deals. This is significant because Kekst has been on top of the heap probably as long as there was a heap. Still, let's not get carried away; things can easily shift in 2008, and Kekst may have been hurt by the drop-off in private equity after midyear. Still, it is worth noting that Joele Frank has bagged Microsoft Corp. as a client in its hostile bid for Yahoo! Inc., which isn't a bad way to start 2008. -
Robert TeitelmanSee the full league table
