I believe this is the guy who owns the Postal/Discovery Channel Team:
**Thomas Weisel files $65 million IPO** *By *<u>*Steve Gelsi*</u>*, MarketWatch*
Last Update: 12:20 PM ET Oct. 19, 2005
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) – Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc. filed a $65 million initial public offering Wednesday as it marked the return of a major San Francisco investment bank since the demise of the “four horsemen” banks of the 1990s bull market.
Thomas Weisel formed the bank in 1998 from a group of defectors from Montgomery Securities, one of four marquee banks of the dot-com era including Robertson Stephens, Hambrecht & Quist and Alex. Brown.
All were acquired by large commercial banks between 1996 and 1998, with none surviving today.
Focusing on technology, healthcare and consumer sectors, Thomas Weisel grew to revenue of $287 million and net income of $22.7 million in 2004, up from $266 million in revenue and $10.6 million in net income in the year-ago period.
Thomas Weisel reported a net loss of $12.3 million on revenue of $121 million in the first six months of 2005.
Thomas Weisel listed itself as an underwriter on the IPO, along with Goldman Sachs and Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
The bank plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “TWPG.”
The IPO filing came the same day as an IPO rally from the Chicago Board of Trade.
Weisel, 64, known as an avid track bicyclist and art collector, was CEO of Montgomery Securities from 1978 until 1998. He also founded and served as president of Montgomery Sports, now known as Tailwind Sports. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Shareholders in the IPO include Weisel, Timothy J. Heekin, Blake Jorgensen, Mark Mason and Paul Slivon; plus institutional shareholders CalPers and Nomura America Investment, Inc.
The company was founded with capital from Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Brentwood Venture Partners, Charlesbank Capital Partners, Citicorp Venture Partners , GE Asset Management , Institutional Venture Partners, Investor AB, James Richardson & Sons, Madison Dearborn Partners, Mayfield Fund, New Enterprise Associates and Oak Investment Partners.
Other investors included The Queen’s Health Systems, Saunders Karp and Megrue, SunAmerica and Weston Presidio Capital.
“Since our founding, we have further extended our relationships within the venture capital and private equity communities,” the company said in its IPO filing.
In another feather in its cap on Wednesday, Thomas Weisel was named lead underwriter of the upcoming Buy.com IPO.
RBC Capital Markets no longer appears as a lead underwriter.
Buy.com plans to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “BUYY.”
Since its founding eight years ago as of Sept. 30, Weisel has advised companies on 132 mergers and acquisitions; lead-managed or co-managed 333 IPOs, secondary offerings and follow-on offerings and established a “leading equity research team” providing proprietary research on approximately 545 companies, Weisel said.