Tidal Partners, a boutique advisory firm started last year by former longtime Centerview Partners technology investment bankers, has landed the biggest technology deal of the year.
(Bloomberg) — Tidal Partners, a boutique advisory firm started last year by former longtime Centerview Partners technology investment bankers, has landed the biggest technology deal of the year.
Tidal, founded by David Handler and David Neequaye, was Cisco Systems Inc. sole bank adviser on its $28 billion takeover of of Splunk Inc. announced Thursday. The two worked at Centerview’s New York and Silicon Valley offices before founding the firm in August 2022. Tidal’s fee for Cisco’s largest-ever deal wasn’t disclosed and couldn’t be learned.
Representatives for Cisco and Tidal didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Handler is a longtime Cisco adviser. He was on the Centerview team that worked with Cisco on its $3.7 billion plus-acquisition of AppDynamics in 2017 as well as Cisco’s $5 billion deal for NDS Group in 2012, among others.
While it’s Tidal’s first megadeal, it’s not its first high-profile assignment with a large client. It advised ServiceNow Inc. on its acquisition of artificial intelligence platform G2K in May, which Bloomberg News reported was worth about $500 million.
It also worked with Bloom Energy Corp. on a convertible bond offering the same month, its website showed. It has about 24 employees listed on its website, including three partners, a chief executive officer and two managing directors.
Handler and Centerview are embroiled in litigation in Delaware Chancery Court over the whether he was a partner, a designation that could entitle him to a more lucrative payout than what he received last year upon his departure.
–With assistance from Greg Farrell.
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