US investment bank Thomas Weisel Partners has formed an alliance with Magnolia Capital Partners of Herzliya and Palo Alto.
Under the alliance, Magnolia Capital will market Thomas Weisel Partners investment banking services, including private equity placements, public equity financings, and mergers and acquisitions advisory, to corporations located in Israel.
"Israel has a strong track record in both incubating and sponsoring leading technology and growth companies and we have enjoyed working with some of the country's most successful organizations," said Thomas Weisel Partners co-director of investment banking Blake Jorgensen.
Since its inception in 1999, Thomas Weisel Partners has completed nearly 500 investment banking transactions valued at over $160 billion in value. Thomas Weisel Partners is also a top trader of stocks listed on the New York Stock and NASDAQ exchanges, with an average daily trading volume of more than 60 million shares. In addition to investment banking and brokerage services, the firm also has five venture capital and private equity funds with over $2 billion of capital committed. TWP has approximately 560 employees with 64 partners and is headquartered in San Francisco with additional offices in New York, Boston, and Palo Alto.
Magnolia Capital Partners was founded by two Israeli technology executives with over 30 years of combined experience in the technology, venture capital and investment banking industries.
Rani Cohen was formerly a managing director of Mofet Venture Capital and Aurum-SBC Ventures. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Cohen held executive management positions at Nexus Telecom and BVR Technologies and most recently held a CEO position with HyperRoll Inc. Cohen also worked as an investment banker in the Technology M&A Group of Credit Suisse First Boston.
Hagi Schwartz has held several executive positions at leading technology companies including service as the CFO fficer of Check Point Software, Mercury Interactive, Noosh, and Atrica.