LONDON -- US investment bank Salomon Smith Barney advised America Online Inc on its record-breaking $190 billion takeover of Time Warner Inc, which was advised by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, an industry source told Reuters on Monday.
Salomon Smith Barney in London declined to comment on whether it had been involved in the largest takeover ever, while Morgan Stanley was not immediately available for comment.
Bankers said the deal between AOL and Time Warner would come as a real jolt to the market and other players in both the Internet and media worlds.
"People have been talking about this sort of deal and explaining the rationale. Seeing the reality in front of you is another thing," said one.
The fact that Salomon Smith Barney had clinched the role of sole advisor to AOL on such a high-profile deal also surprised some of the investment bank's competitors.
"This is a real coup for them (Salomon Smith Barney), I'm surprised Goldman Sachs or CSFB did not manage to get in there," an investment banker at a rival firm told Reuters.
Investment banks have been scrambling to put together teams of bankers specialising in the technology sector, with many willing to pay top-dollar to steal star bankers with an in-depth knowledge of Silicon Valley from their rivals in order to grab a piece of the booming Internet cake.
Recently the banks have also had to compete with the lure of Internet start-ups, with established professionals leaving the relative security of Wall Street for the promise of highly-valued equity in new ventures and bright-eyed graduates veering towards such firms rather than the banks.
