Frank Quattrone
Founder and Executive Chairman, Qatalyst Partners. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveanalystqatalyst.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
Frank Quattrone is a prominent technology investment banker who established tech franchises at Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse, leading the IPOs of Amazon, Cisco, and Netscape. In 2008, he founded tech-focused M&A advisory firm Qatalyst Partners, advising on landmark transactions including LinkedIn's sale to Microsoft.
1shows
1appearances
26statements
17resolved
12supported
1contradicted
71%fully supported
4said about them ↓ Everything Frank Quattrone said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Quattrone: M&A Freezes After Market Crashes Due to Valuation Misalignment
“The worst M&A years we've had ironically are when there's been a market crash and you'd think that that would be the time that buyers really step up and go on a bargain basement hunting expedition. But it's similarly a time when Sellers still think that they'r…”
Quattrone: Trump Clamped Down on Big Tech Due to Personal Animosity
“You'd think that a Republican would be a little softer on regulation, but honestly, he was not the traditional conservative Republican free market. He was a populist and he hated the big tech companies because they were so critical of him and they almost steer…”
Quattrone: Tech M&A Advisory Firm Qatalyst Still Closes 80%-90% of Deals
“And so we're not having trouble getting 80% or 90% of our deals done, it's really only 10%”
Qatalyst's Best M&A Year Was 2021 With Zero Face-to-Face Meetings
“The best year we've ever had in any of my businesses in M&A was 2021, where by the way, not a single one of us saw any of our colleagues face to face or a single client face to face. Was our single best year in history.”
Quattrone: Tech companies must eventually IPO for M&A currency and public debt
“And so, yes, they wanted to wait longer, but at some point employees need liquidity. Yes, you can get it through privately held deals, but and also they need a currency for acquisitions. That's a lot of times what really drives the company to ultimately face t…”
Quattrone: Microsoft and Salesforce submitted nearly identical bids at every stage for LinkedIn
“With LinkedIn, we had interest from several parties, but it really kind of came down to Microsoft and Salesforce. And I've never seen companies bid privately and come up with such close prices on every stage Like, 151 151 162 163. It was very, very close, and …”
Quattrone: Salesforce submitted higher unsolicited bids during LinkedIn's exclusivity window with Microsoft
“So they went into like a 30 day exclusivity to try to get to definitive agreement. And during that period, Salesforce lobbed in Several offers that were higher. And that meant that towards the end of that period, we had to inform Microsoft, Hey, your deal is n…”
Frank Quattrone: 90% of M&A deals die after initiation
“Honestly, the answer is probably a lot higher than people think, but 90% of deals probably die once they get started.”
Frank Quattrone: Tech M&A closing timelines have stretched up to 24 months
“And before it was almost unheard of for deals to take more than six, nine months. Now it's 12 months and then it's 18 months. And now sometimes, you know, it's 24 months, you know, to predict what's going to happen.”
Quattrone: Cloud software M&A multiples are back to 6x-8x revenue
“If you look at the average cloud software play, which is where a lot of the activities happen in M&A, we're kind of back to that six to eight times revenue area that it's traded up for most of its existence”
Quattrone: Private equity accounts for up to 90% of public company acquisitions
“A substantial percentage of the public deals have been private equity. I've seen numbers like 60, 70, 80, Maybe even 90% in recent years of public companies have been bought by private equity firms.”
Quattrone: Tech M&A activity is on the verge of a rebound
“And when visibility starts to improve both in the buyers businesses and the sellers businesses and the financial markets start stabilizing, I think we're going to be on a cusp of M&A activity increasing.”
Quattrone: Rapid rate and valuation changes freeze M&A, not absolute rates
“When either valuations are coming down rapidly, going up rapidly, when interest rates are going up rapidly and the valuations are coming down because the markets are just, you know, wrapped with this new environment where there's actually a cost of capital, th…”
Quattrone: PE creates value in tech by cutting low-ROI sales and marketing costs
“I think that the insight that they have was that tech companies pay an awful lot of marketing and sales money for the last few points of growth. So if we could subtract a lot of that SG&A And maybe lose a point or two of growth, but convert margins from 10% to…”
Barnes & Noble Sued Amazon for False Advertising During IPO Roadshow
“When we took Jeff Bezos out on the road, the first thing that happened was that Barnes and Noble sued him for false advertising because Amazon slogan at the time you may remember was earth's largest bookstore. And Barnes and Noble had no sense of humor about t…”
Steve Jobs Predicted PCs Would Revolutionize Communication, Shopping, and Daily Life
“Personal computers are not just going to revolutionize the computing industry, but how we communicate, how we shop, how we entertain ourselves and how we live.”
Quattrone: Netscape's 1995 IPO was Morgan Stanley's biggest since Apple in 1980
“And there were a couple of phases to this, you know, Netscape, Netscape came public in 1995. And it was literally the most popular IPO at Morgan Stanley since Apple in 1980.”
Quattrone: 90% of Companies Now Achieve Liquidity via M&A, Not IPOs
“Only 10% of companies go public. Like back in the eighties and nineties of 50%, but since 2050%, no, 90% of companies get liquidity through mergers.”
Quattrone: Private equity will not match strategic buyers' 20-40x revenue multiples
“And now they're getting much more imaginative about the prices that they're willing to pay, but they won't pay you know, 20 times revenue or 30 times revenue or 40 times revenue like a strategic will.”
Quattrone: Qatalyst Barely Made Payroll in 2008 Until Christmas Deal Closed
“That first year, I didn't know if we could make payroll until our very first deal closed, like literally on December, 25th. And we got our first fee. So we were able to make payroll.”
Amazon's Split-Adjusted $18 IPO Price Equals 7.5 Cents, a 2,200x Return
“By the way, that 18 after all of the stock splits since then is seven and a half cents versus the 170 dollars for Amazon is trading today. So, 2200 times the IPO price.”
Quattrone: Qatalyst M&A business picked up over past six months
“We've had two consecutive down years, but for the last six months, our business started picking up.”
Quattrone: In 1981, US interest rates were 16% and Dow was at 700
“And back then the Dow is at 700. Interest rates were at 16%. And there were very, very few technology companies with more than a few hundred million in market cap.”
The other half of the tape: Frank Quattrone's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 4 times in 2 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Bill Gurley 3Jason Lemkin 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 4
2026 1 mention in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Frank's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Founder and Executive Chairman, Qatalyst Partners | 1 | 26 | 71% 12/17 | full record on 20VC → |