On July 6, telecom rainmaker George H. "Woody" Young III, who left Bank of America Merrill Lynch in April, will join Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) as head of global telecommunications and a vice chairman, U.S. investment banking.
Young (pictured) is a promising addition, seeing as how Rothschild
announced Monday morning that it hired Lazard's co-head of global TMT, Laurence Grafstein. He joined Rothschild as co-head of U.S. M&A alongside Steven Tishman.
Lazard eased that blow with hiring Young, who started out in the M&A group at First Boston Corp. in 1987. Two years ago, Young abruptly departed Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. after disagreements with then-CEO Dick Fuld over Young's management status. Young spent 14 years at Lehman, eventually becoming head of the global communications group.
Later, in September, just before Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch and Lehman filed for bankruptcy, Young arrived at Merrill's New York office as global head of technology, media and telecommunications investment banking. He went right to work advising CenturyTel Inc. on its acquisition of Overland Park, Kan.-based Embarq Corp. for $11.6 billion in stock and assumed debt. Other significant deals Young has worked on over the years include advising:
- Cingular Wireless on its $41 billion merger with AT&T Wireless Services Inc.,
- SBC Communications Inc.
on its $22 billion merger with AT&T Inc.,
- AT&T on its $89 billion merger with BellSouth Corp.,
- US West Inc. on its
$56 billion merger with Qwest Communications International Inc.,
- Sprint Corp. on its $47 billion merger with Nextel Communications Inc., and
- Verizon's divestitures of its Latin American and
Caribbean businesses.
While the
massive exodus of bankers continues at BofA-Merrill, Lazard has had a busy month hiring.
Last week, oil and gas dealmaker Jack Lentz joined Lazard as chairman, international oil and gas. Lentz was previously head of Lehman Brothers' worldwide energy practice. Lentz, who has served as a director of Peabody Energy Corp. for 11 years, is nonexecutive chairman of Rowan Cos. and is a director of Carbo Ceramics. Just before that, Thaddeus Shelly arrived to lead a new private wealth management unit, based in New York. Shelly joined from Bessemer Trust, where he was a senior managing director and regional head of the mid-Atlantic, South and Southeast Regions. Before that, he founded and led the private client services ultra-high-net-worth business at Legg Mason Inc.
Lazard began the month hiring John Stewart, an international M&A specialist, as a managing director. Based in Sydney, Stewart is a member of the leadership team for the Australia corporate advisory business, under John Wylie, head of Australian corporate advisory.
Stewart was most recently a senior adviser in J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s (NYSE:JPM) San Francisco office. He also worked at Thomas Weisel Partners LLC and was an M&A attorney with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson LLP in New York.
A Goldman, Sachs & Co. (NYSE:GS) analyst
recently removed Lazard from the "Americas Conviction Buy List" but kept a "Buy" rating on the firm. -
Baz Hiralal
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