Remove 2008 Remove Boutique Remove IPO
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Bulge Bracket Banks: 2024 Edition

Mergers and Inquisitions

The name “bulge bracket” (BB) comes from the prospectus for an IPO or debt issuance, which lists all the banks underwriting the deal. For example, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns were considered bulge bracket banks before the 2008 financial crisis – but many people today don’t even remember them.

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Growth Equity: The Child Prodigy of Private Equity and Venture Capital, or an Artifact of Easy Money?

Mergers and Inquisitions

Others would counter that growth equity’s rapid ascent was mostly due to the easy money that persisted between 2008 and 2021. This style is about purchasing minority stakes in cash-flow-negative-but-high-growth companies that want to scale and eventually go public or sell (think: Uber or Airbnb before their IPOs).