As of September 1, 2021, we are pleased to be part of D.A. Davidson & Co. We will continue serving our clients as part of their full-service Investment Banking Group. Click here to learn more about our combined strengths.
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We’re Merging

Jun 23, 2021

We’re Merging

Uncategorized 0 Comments

Dear Clients and Friends,

We have News!

We just agreed to merge our firm, Marlin & Associates, with the technology investment banking group of D.A. Davidson (https://dadavidson.com/) to create 5th largest (and fastest growing) middle-market investment banking group in the US – with a combined 75 completed transactions since 2019. (We expect the deal to close in a couple of months following regulatory approvals.)

The announcement is HERE.

Yep, after nearly 20 years as one of the most active independent investment banking and strategic advisory firms providing counsel to worldwide buyers and sellers of mid-market fintech data and analytics firms, we are taking the advice we give to clients – and staying focused on our long-term objectives.

Many people know D.A. Davidson & Co. for its asset and wealth management business. What some may have missed is that, over the past few years, D.A. Davidson has become a fast-growing, full-service, financial services company – with 1,400 employees and 99 offices in 28 states providing wealth management, investment banking, equity and fixed income capital markets services – including the full range of m&a advice for clients worldwide looking to buy, sell or raise capital for firms in consumer, diversified industrials, financial institutions, and technology industries. (That’s where we fit in.) They have capabilities, geographic reach, and domain expertise in areas we do not – capabilities for which we have long lusted. Like us, D.A. Davidson is 100% employee owned and strong believers in building long-lasting, trust-based relationships with clients.

Our mission has not changed. We will continue providing trusted m&a financial and strategic advice for fintech and data & analytics firms and their owners, investors and managers. I’ll become Vice Chairman.  And now, we will be part of a larger team, leveraging D.A. Davidson’s resources around the country as well as their international relationships. Anup Agarwal, Tom Selby, Aalap Merchant, our co-founder Michael Maxworthy and the rest of our team will all be a of part of the new group (Max will become Co-Head of the D.A. Davidson Technology Investment Banking group.)

We are excited at this opportunity. Together we will form one of the fastest growing mid-market Technology Investment Banking groups in the United States.

  • Our combined Tech Investment Banking group will have more than 60 professionals across North America plus a strategic transatlantic partnership with MCF Corporate Finance (60 investment banking professionals in London, Stockholm, Hamburg, and Helsinki).
  • Our Group will cover eight tech sectors: Application Software, Infrastructure Software, Vertical Software, Communications Software/Hardware, Internet and Digital Media, Technology-Enabled Services, Data & Analytics, and Financial Technology. Within Financial Technology, we will continue covering clients across WealthTech, Payments Tech, InsurTech, BankTech, Real Estate Tech, LegalTech, GRC, Business Intelligence, Market Intelligence, Capital Markets Technology, and Digital Tech including Workflow Automation.
  • This group has been part of more than 40 technology firm public offerings completed since 2019, including the IPOs of Airbnb, Snowflake, UiPath, Telos, Duck Creek Technologies, and Coursera.
  • We’ll work closely with D.A. Davidson’s 12 technology research professionals covering more than 130 technology stocks, and a dedicated equity sales and trading team.
  • And we’ll get to invite clients to D.A. Davidson’s annual Software & Internet conference, attended by over 500 public and private companies and institutional investors. The 20th annual event will be held in New York on September 9, 2021. (Let us know if you would like to attend).

This should be fun.

https://storage.pardot.com/500091/1619535751zPQ28Yos/Ken_s_Signature.jpg
Ken Marlin 
Managing Member | Marlin & Associates
570 Lexington Ave | 48th Floor | New York, NY 10022
www.MarlinLLC.com

D.A.Davidson Co.

Some Recent D. A. Davidson tech m&a transactions include:

  • Safesend, the leading provider e-signature and workflow automation technology for certified public accounts on its investment from Lead Edge Capital;
  • United Real Estate, is a national provider of information services to real estate brokerages in its investment from Abry Partners;
  • Cimetrix, the equipment connectivity leader for smart manufacturing in its acquisition by PDF Solutions;
  • Mobichord, a technology expense management software platform in its investment from Periscope Equity;
  • NinjaCat, an all-in-one platform for marketing teams in its significant growth equity investment from Clovis Point Capital;
  • Cforia, an order to cash software platform in its sale to Gemspring Capital;
  • Yantriks, a SaaS provider in ecommerce and fulfillment microservices in its sale to Blue Yonder;
  • Soft-pak, a vertically integrated provider of back-office, route management and CRM solutions to the waste and recycling industry in its sale to Dover;
  • Approved Networks, a provider programming, testing and distribution of network solutions in its merger with Champion One;
  • Unified Patents, a membership based patent deterrent organization in its growth equity investment from WestView Capital Partners

Some recent Marlin & Associates transactions include advising:  

  • Marlin Equity Partners in its investments in Vela Trading Systems and Exegy, two of the last remaining independent providers of institutional quality, real time securities market data and managed services for buy side and sell side organizations worldwide;
  • Novantas, the leading provider of advanced decision support systems and data to financial institutions, on its combination with FBX, a subsidiary of Informa plc (LSE: INF);
  • Option Metrics, on the significant growth-capital investment it received from Leeds Equity Partners;
  • ClaimVantage, the Dublin Ireland based, InsurTech firm on its sale to Majesco; 
  • TABS Analytics, the technology-enabled marketing analytics firm on its sale to Blacksmith Applications;
  • Grapevine6, the provider of an AI-powered digital sales engagement platform on its sale to Seismic;
  • HTD on its sale of MuniBrokers, the central electronic municipal trading venue, to MarketAxess;
  • Strands, a Spain and US-based company that provides cloud-based, white-labeled personal finance and business financial management solution for the global banking industry, on its sale to CRIF, the global information company based in Italy;
  • Hanweck, a provider of real-time risk analytics, on its sale to Cboe; 
  • Greenwich Associates, the leading provider of data, analytics, benchmarks and qualitative insights to financial services firms globally, to Crisil, an S&P Global Company based in Mumbai, India; 
  • Kore.ai, a provider of end-to-end conversational Artificial Intelligence solutions on its growth equity capital raise.


Ken Marlin

Ken Marlin

Ken Marlin is Managing Partner and Founder of Marlin & Associates and the author of "The Marine Corps Way to Win on Wall Street: 11 Key Principles from Battlefield to Boardroom" (St. Martin's Press 2016).

Over the course of more than 30 years Ken has advised scores of U.S. and international middle-market technology enabled firms on the best ways to buy, sell, grow and thrive. Along the way, he's been an entrepreneur (three times), a tech company CEO (twice), a senior corporate executive (twice) and an investment banker.

Seventeen years ago, Ken embarked on a journey to create a different sort of investment bank - one that would meld the investment banking skills he learned over 20 years on Wall Street with lessons he learned as a tech entrepreneur and the principles he learned during the decade he spent on active duty as a U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer. Today, Marlin & Associates is one of the most active M&A advisers in the information technology arena.

Institutional Investor Magazine has five times named Ken as one of II’s “Tech 50” and the II “FinTech 35” - both of which honor the most influential figures in the financial technology data and analytics sector.

Outside the office, Ken is a trustee of the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club, which serves underprivileged kids throughout the five counties of New York City; and an active supporter of the Phoenix House Foundation, The Wall Street Warriors Foundation, The Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, University of the People, the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, and Outward Bound Peacekeeping.

Ken’s book has garnered strong reviews and is consistently ranked among the top in governance, finance and leadership. One reviewer called it a compelling vision to improve Wall Street by returning to solid core values like taking the long view, behaving with honor, delivering excellence and working for a cause greater than money.

Ken earned a BA from the University of California (Irvine), an MBA from UCLA, and a post-MBA Advanced Professional Certificate in Corporate Strategy from New York University. He lives in New York City with his wife, daughter, a dog, a cat and turtle.

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