SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Qatalyst Group, the technology-focused independent investment bank, announced today that Nadir Shaikh will join the Firm as a Partner.  Mr. Shaikh, most recently a Managing Director in Technology Investment Banking at Credit Suisse, will be based at Qatalyst's San Francisco headquarters and will advise technology companies and private investment firms on mergers & acquisitions, financings and strategic investments in the communications technology, storage and systems sectors.

Frank Quattrone, Chief Executive Officer of Qatalyst Group, said: "Nadir is a talented advisor with deep domain expertise, a broad network of relationships and extensive transaction experience, and we are delighted to welcome him to Qatalyst."

Mr. Shaikh, 38, has more than 14 years of technology investment banking experience and has advised on several landmark transactions, including Avaya's $8B sale to SilverLake and TPG; Scientific-Atlanta's $6B sale to Cisco; and Sun's $7B sale to Oracle. He has also advised on capital-raising and M&A transactions for clients including 3PAR, Acme Packet, ADC Telecommunications, Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, Cisco, Dell, Finisar, JDS Uniphase, Nokia, Nortel, Motorola, Quantum, and Tellabs.

Since its founding in March 2008, Qatalyst's assignments have included advising 3PAR on its $2.4B sale to HP; Atheros on its $3.6B pending sale to Qualcomm; Brocade on restructuring and completing its $2.6B acquisition of Foundry Networks; Data Domain on its $2.4B sale to EMC; eBay on a strategic advisory assignment; Google on creating an alternative to Microsoft's $45B hostile takeover attempt of Yahoo!; Isilon on its $2.6B sale to EMC; Netezza on its $1.9B sale to IBM; and Palm on its $1.4B sale to HP.

Qatalyst Group is a technology-focused independent investment bank headquartered in San Francisco, California.  Qatalyst Partners, its advisory business, provides high impact strategic and financial advice to senior management and boards of established and emerging technology leaders on matters crucial to their growth and success.  Qatalyst's advisors combine an extensive network of relationships with deep industry knowledge and seasoned transaction expertise to deliver a superior, senior level of service for clients who value experience, judgment, candor and insight.  In addition to merger & acquisition advice, Qatalyst Partners employs its team's extensive corporate finance and capital markets experience to advise companies on capital structure and capital raising alternatives, and selectively raises private capital for clients.

SOURCE Qatalyst Group