By Abigail Summerville
Oct 14 (Reuters) – Investment bank Piper Sandler and advisory firm Perella Weinberg Partners have abandoned talks for an all-stock merger as they could not agree on financial and personnel terms, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
Shares of Perella Weinberg closed 19.1% lower at $13, while those of Piper Sandler ended up 0.96% at $64.5.
Perella Weinberg declined to comment, while Piper Sandler did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The Financial Times first reported on Wednesday that the merger talks fell through. The Wall Street Journal had reported last month that Piper Sandler was in talks to buy Perella Weinberg, which had a market value of about $1.4 billion at the time.
A $485-million merger between Minneapolis-based Piper Jaffray and New York-based Sandler O’Neill led to the formation of Piper Sandler Companies in January 2020, creating a major investment bank specializing in the middle market, with leading advisory practices in financial services, healthcare and energy.
Meanwhile, Perella Weinberg was founded by veteran Wall Street bankers Joseph Perella, Peter Weinberg and Terry Meguid in 2006. The firm went public in 2021 through a merger with a blank-check company backed by banking entrepreneur Betsy Cohen, in a deal valued at about $975 million.
(Reporting by Abigail Summerville and Pragyan Kalita in Bengaluru; Editing by Diti Pujara)
