Goldman Sachs didn’t lose any time getting itself a mandate in the Yahoo-Microsoft merger. Goldman advised Microsoft in its attempt to buy Yahoo last year, but wasn’t hired by the Redmond giant this time around. Not to worry: Goldman has now got itself hired by Yahoo instead, along with Lehman Brothers.
In M&A advisory, it’s always good to be on the sell side, because you’re guaranteed your fee: if Microsoft fails to win Yahoo for whatever reason, Morgan Stanley and Blackstone are likely to go home largely empty-handed, while Goldman and Lehman will still be paid. And the choice of Goldman was probably easy for Yahoo too, given that the bank knows the mechanics of any merger extremely well.