Analyst who recommended eToys and Webvan is now Goldman Sachs' head banker for Twitter IPO
Twitter's New Top Banker Was a Tech Bubble Clown — Anthony Noto just came out of Wall Street retirement for one big score: he's going to lead the Goldman Sachs blitz behind Twitter's IPO …
Context & Ripple Effects
Anthony Noto has come out of Wall Street retirement to run Goldman Sachs' banking team on Twitter's IPO — a confirmed move, and an odd one given his history: as an analyst during the dot-com bubble he recommended eToys and Webvan, two of the era's most notorious collapses, which is why Valleywag frames him as a 'tech bubble clown' returning for one big score.
The story travelled fast for a personnel item: Quartz, AllThingsD, DealBook, Forbes, Gawker, and commentators like Dan Gillmor and Jay Yarow all picked it up on or about October 4, 2013, meaning Noto's track record is now part of the public framing of a marquee listing rather than background noise.
First-order effects
- Noto now owns the highest-profile banking mandate of the season — leading Goldman Sachs' underwriting blitz on Twitter's IPO puts both his reputation and the firm's directly on the line with institutional investors who remember eToys and Webvan.
- Twitter's choice of Goldman under Noto ties its debut pricing narrative to a banker whose bubble-era research calls are already being recirculated by press and rivals.
Second-order effects
- Rival bulge-bracket banks chasing the next consumer-internet mandates will have to answer the same question Twitter didn't: whether a dot-com-era analyst's record disqualifies or qualifies them to price unprofitable social companies.
- The scrutiny gives Twitter and Goldman an incentive to lean harder on mobile-revenue metrics and disclosure polish in the S-1 roadshow, since the banking team's credibility is the first thing skeptics attack.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the thin bench of bankers with real consumer-internet IPO experience means the industry keeps recycling bubble-era veterans — making analyst track records from 1999–2000 a recurring character witness issue for every big social-media listing.
- It also points toward tighter coupling between banker reputation and deal reception: when the underwriter's past calls are public ammunition, issuers may weigh personal history as heavily as league tables when picking a lead bank.
The trend: Wall Street's consumer-internet IPO machine is being staffed again by veterans of the dot-com bubble, turning their old research records into part of every new listing's risk narrative.