Monday, February 25, 2008

S.F. bank Rutberg lands in Boston seeking deals

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

Investment bank Rutberg & Co. LLC, focused on the wireless and digital media sectors, has opened a new office in Boston, the firm's first outside of its home base in San Francisco.

The specialty investment bank has put Jeff Berry, former head of private capital at Silicon Valley Bank affiliate SVB Alliant, in charge of the private-capital side of the office. Joseph Sandborn, former co-head of the software, Internet and services group of SVB Alliant, is being charged with leading Rutberg's local mergers and acquisitions practice.

A Boston office has long been part of the tech investment firm's strategy but has been slow in coming, according to a statement by CEO Bryan Rutberg and echoed by Sandborn.

While the Boston office has just two employees at the moment, the 30-person firm dedicates much of its resources to industry research, and uses that data in its advisory position in its representation of entrepreneurs, traditionally on the sell side of a transaction.

Carl Stjernfeldt, a general partner at Waltham venture capital firm Castile Ventures, said the addition of Rutberg to the local wireless ecosystem is a testament to the region's growing industry.

"Traditionally they have been West Coast-centric and I'm pleased they also recognize the activity and importance of Boston as a wireless hub," he said.

On the private equity side, the company has advised startups such as Handango Inc. of Texas, which closed a $60.5 million second round of funding in 2006. On the M&A side, Sandborn said the company's most high profile deal was the acquisition of a 25 percent stake in Craigslist Inc. by California-based eBay Inc. in 2004. The firm also advised Maryland-based Cognio Inc. in its sale to Cisco Systems Inc. earlier this year.

The Boston office has yet to pull the trigger on its first local deal, but Sandborn said several are in the works, and officials expect to be kept busy in the region's growing wireless space.

"In the Internet days, most of the early and successful companies were on the West Coast, but I think New England has the chance to be that in the wireless world," said Sandborn.