Silicon Valley Bank to Buy Research Firm MoffettNathanson

Silicon Valley Bank’s parent company, SVB Financial Group, will acquire technology, media and telecom research firm MoffettNathanson, SVB announced Monday (Dec. 13).

The deal will see SVB’s tech investment banking unit merged with the research division of analysts Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in the announcement.

“We will begin immediately to collaborate with SVB to significantly expand what we can deliver, further positioning us as the preferred partner to our clients,” the company said in a statement, per CNBC.

Moffett is known for covering the telecom industry and has worked with The Boston Consulting Group and Sanford Bernstein, while Nathanson has covered media at both Bernstein and Nomura.

MoffettNathanson reportedly doesn’t anticipate any changes for its equity research clients, and both Moffett and Nathanson have made long-term commitments to stay with SVB.

Silicon Valley Bank has made numerous other partnerships in the past year, including one with spend management platform Airbase, in a bid to allow more business cards to be used in application programming interface (API) integration.

See also: Airbase, Silicon Valley Bank Partner on Spend Management

This development will help with automating account and spend approval workflows.

SVB business cards have been designed to let companies handle their own financial needs, with Airbase adding the ability to offer accounts payable and employee expense reimbursement options.

Airbase offers companies more control over spending, and allows them to send transaction details for booking to general ledgers. Those not currently using Airbase will be allowed to sign up and get access to the company’s spend management solution.

Jon Oakes, managing director of card products for SVB, said the goal was to help clients “increase control and visibility while simplifying and automating workflows.”

Meanwhile in September, Silicon Valley Bank also teamed with Plaid, the fintech infrastructure firm, to offer instant authentication for bank account information.

PYMNTS wrote that the partnership would tokenize the account connection process and allow for more secure payments, with tokenization working to swap out sensitive data with random characters.

Read more: Silicon Valley Bank Teams With Plaid for ACH Tokenization

Shaleen Prakash, head of digital channels and segment operating solutions at Silicon Valley Bank, said the solution “will enable innovation economy clients to leverage a best-in-class solution that is a result of a solid partnership between two of the most forward-leaning firms in the financial ecosystem.”