Morpheus Capital Advisors

Morpheus Capital Advisors is a private investment bank that was founded in 2003. The firm has offices located in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Morpheus is active in mergers and acquisitions, capital-raising and corporate restructuring advice to mid-sized and growth companies. Its partners were all previously partners at bulge bracket investment banking firms prior to joining Morpheus.
Founders
The firm's Founding Partner is Richard Maisto who was previously a Managing Director at BT Alex Brown, where he focused on developing acquisition opportunities, providing acquisition financing and raising debt and equity financing. His clients included Texas Pacific Group, Fox Paine, Oaktree Capital and Brera Capital. Previously, Mr. Maisto was a Managing Director at Smith Barney, where he focused on both advising private equity firms and executing complex restructurings. His clients included Citibank, UGI/AmeriGas, Mellon Bank Corp. and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Mr. Maisto began his career as a Vice President in Drexel Burnham's restructuring group. Maisto has served on numerous corporate boards and was a mentor to the Southern California Biomedical Council.
Partners:
Mitchell Gordon:
Soon after the firm's inception, Mitchell Gordon resigned his position as CFO of Interpool to become President of Morpheus.
Previous to Interpool, Mr. Gordon was President and Founder of Atlas Capital Partners, a private equity investment firm, and a Managing Director and Co-Head of Salomon Smith Barney's Transportation Group. He has also served as a Senior Vice President and Head of the Transportation and Automotive Groups at Furman Selz as well as a Vice President at Needham & Company. Gordon started his business career at the American Broadcasting Company, where he was Manager of Strategic Planning.
Morgan St. John:
Prior to joining Morpheus, Mr. St. John led his own advisory firm, Wyvern Capital. Previously he was a Partner and Managing Director at Bankers Trust Company, where he served on the Global Investment Banking Management Committee and led both the Los Angeles-based Structured Finance Group and the New York-based Structured Debt Syndication Group. St. John is active on both for-profit and not-for-profit boards.
Bash Derti:
Bash Derti was Co-Founder of The Rubicon Group, a financial consulting firm providing strategic corporate advisory services to companies in several industries. Previously, he was Vice President of Business Development at Broadband Sports, a sports-themed new media company that combined content and commerce. In addition, Derti served as an investment banker with SG Cowen’s Technology Investment Banking Group, where he worked in the Technology and Media & Entertainment Group.
Jonathan Brolin:
Prior to joining Morpheus, Jonathan Brolin was a Managing Director of RLR Capital Partners. Mr. Brolin has also served as a Vice President and Investment Analyst at Steinberg Asset Management, and worked in private equity investing as a Senior Associate at GCC Investments. Prior to GCC, he worked in investment banking as a Financial Analyst at Oppenheimer & Company, where he assisted with corporate finance transactions in the media, business services and sports industries. He was previously a Manager of Strategy and Business Development at The New York Times.
Company Overview
Through May 2010, Morpheus has advised on over $20 billion of transactions. All of the firm's partners have over 20 years of investment banking experience at major Wall Street firms.
Although Morpheus has advised in most industries, they have concentrated in the following industries:
*Transportation
*Specialty Finance and Leasing
*Media and Entertainment
*Financial Services
*Business Services
*Retail and Consumer Products
*General Industrial
*Health Care
Morpheus's partners have completed over $80 billion of transactions for clients including the following: American Airlines, Betsey Johnson, Carnival Cruise Lines, Castenea Partners, Coach USA, General Mills, Kraft, Marriott, Safeway, Sears, UBS, and Universal Studios, to name a few.
Morpheus' Advisory Services include:
Capital-Raising
* Private Equity: for mature, growth and early stage companies
* Senior Debt: includes asset backed, revolving credit facilities and term loans
* Mezzanine: includes secured and unsecured junior debt and preferred stock
* IPO Advisory: to help clients successfully navigate the IPO process
Restructuring (serving both creditors and debtors)
* Debt Restructuring Advisory
* Amendment Negotiations
* Distressed Debt Acquisition
M&A Advice (including acquisition strategy and tactics, transaction structuring, valuations, negotiations and due diligence)
* Buy-Side Advisory/Sell-Side Advisory
* Acquisition and Sale of Distressed Businesses
* Cross-Border Advisory
* Valuation Services/Fairness Opinions

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