Regarding Allen & Co. -- the first time I ever heard about Allen & Co., someone described the firm as "investment banking, 1920's style."
I did not ask : "What exactly do you mean by that ?" ... but, assumed this meant : doing some serious capital raising for very early stage companies. Plus, making the people at Allen put their own money "on the line" in deals, not just (the classic) "other people's money."
These thoughts were confirmed by a cover story in Forbes magazine on Allen & Co. about a year ago.
The article basically could not have been more glowing.
Among other things, it gave an example of one investment banking deal where the person who either brought the deal to Allen, or was the main person working on it, (or both) was asked by one of the senior partners : "Do you believe in this deal enough to put a lot of your own money in it ?"
The (young) associate responded (in effect) "Hey, I'm 25 years old. I've only got about $5,000 saved up at this point in my life, so I guess the question is a "moot" point."
The partner said "Fine, the firm's partnership will lend you $125,000. You have to put all $125,000 in this deal. If it goes bust, you will have a $125,000 debt to the firm. Still want to pursue this deal ???"
(The deal did proceed).
I thought this was really neat !
Anyway, upon learning that Allen & Co. has been involved with various financing arrangements for CHAR recently, my attitude was -- I guess these guys (at CHAR) are for real.
Jon. |
