Industry Banking Products Investment banking Number of employees 170 (2010) | Area served United States Founded 1922 Type of business Private | |
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Founder Charles Robert Allen, Jr. Key people Herbert Allen, Jr.
(CEO) Headquarters New York City, New York, United States | ||
Allen & Company LLC is an American privately held boutique investment bank based at 711 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The firm is known for its deliberate avoidance of publicity and specializes in the technology, media and entertainment sectors.
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History
Founded in 1922 by Charles Robert Allen, Jr., he was soon joined by his brothers, Herbert A. Allen, Sr. and Harold Allen. The firm is generally regarded as a boutique advisory firm with a specific specialization in the media and entertainment sectors.
Allen & Company, which is currently run by Herbert Allen, Jr., nephew of the founder, generally shies away from publicity and does not maintain a website or issue press releases, with the exception of the extensive media procured for its annual conference evidenced by its allowance of access to the conference by financial media properties such CNBC, WSJ and others to cover its event.
In 1973, Allen & Company bought a stake in Columbia Pictures. When the business was sold in 1982 to Coca-Cola, it netted a significant profit. Since then, Herbert Allen, Jr. has had a place on Coca-Cola's board of directors.
Since its founding in 1982, the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference regularly draws such heavyweights as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Rupert Murdoch, Barry Diller, Michael Eisner, Oprah Winfrey, Robert Johnson, Andy Grove, Richard Parsons, Donald Keough, and many others.
Allen & Co. was one of ten underwriters for the Google initial public offering in 2004, and were announced to have been retained in January 2011 to assist the ownership of the New York Mets in obtaining a strategic partner (although such a transaction was not ultimately consummated). Allen & Co. was one of seven underwriters on the initial public offering of Twitter Inc. in November 2013.
Allen & Co was the lead advisor to Time Warner in its $108 billion acquisition by AT&T.
Allen & Co. was also the adviser of Facebook in its $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp in February 2014 and also the adviser to Time Warner in its $80 billion 2015 merger with Charter. In 2016, Allen & Co. was an advisor to LinkedIn for its merger talks with Microsoft. In 2016, Allen & Co. was lead advisor to Walmart in its $3.3 billion purchase of Jet.com, and advisor to Verizon in its $4.8 billion acquisition of Yahoo. In 2015, Allen was only advisor to AOL in its acquisition by Verizon and lead advisor to Centene in its $6.8 billion acquisition of Health Net and advisor to eBay in its separation from PayPal. In 2007, Allen was sole advisor to Activision in its $18 billion merger with Vivendi/Blizzard.