Sanford Robertson, tech financier, 1931-2024

{"text":[[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":10.8,"text":"Sanford “Sandy” Robertson, the pioneering Silicon Valley financier whose initial public offerings helped turn a sleepy Northern California peninsula into a global economic powerhouse, has died at age 93. "}],[{"start":22.57,"text":"Robertson was one of the earliest bankers to sense the potential of technological innovations emerging from the suburbs south of San Francisco in the 1970s and 1980s, at a time when major New York investment banks evinced little interest in the high-risk and little-known inventions that would come to dominate every aspect of modern life. "}],[{"start":40.05,"text":"He and a handful of like-minded money men launched boutique investment banks catering to the emerging industry, collectively becoming known as the so-called Four Horsemen firms that dominated technology stock market listings for almost three decades. "},{"start":52.516999999999996,"text":"Robertson’s firm, Robertson Stephens, went on to underwrite hundreds of technology companies, some of which would ultimately become household names: Pixar Studios, eBay, E*Trade, AOL and Dell among them. "}],[{"start":65.44999999999999,"text":"Frank Quattrone, whom Morgan Stanley sent in the 1980s to the Bay Area in pursuit of tech mandates, recalled Robertson’s stature. "}],[{"start":73.78999999999999,"text":"“I admired him a great deal and he served as an inspiration for me to dedicate my career to tech banking,” Quattrone said in an email. "}],[{"start":80.94999999999999,"text":"Robertson introduced Tom Perkins and Eugene Kleiner at a 1972 breakfast meeting in Palo Alto where the pair decided to launch a venture capital firm together. "},{"start":89.817,"text":"That firm, Kleiner Perkins, would go on to become the perhaps the most storied VC in history. "}],[{"start":96.16999999999999,"text":"In 1995, Robertson Stephens led the IPO of Pixar, the animation studio. "},{"start":102.24899999999998,"text":"Years later, Stephens recalled the demands of Steve Jobs, the Pixar chief executive at the time, who offered precise views on the design of the prospectus and insisted on vegetarian-only meals during roadshow investor meetings. "}],[{"start":115.22999999999999,"text":"After selling Robertson Stephens in the dotcom frenzy of the late 1990s, Robertson reinvented himself as both a private equity investor and close adviser to Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff. "}],[{"start":126.80999999999999,"text":"Sanford Richard Robertson was born in 1931 in Chicago. "},{"start":130.902,"text":"His father had acquired a restaurant during the depression and Robertson spent his childhood helping his parents operate it. "},{"start":136.64399999999998,"text":"“I had an MBA before I got out of high school,” he would quip. "}],[{"start":140.6,"text":"Robertson had planned to attend the hotel management school at Cornell and return to the family business. "},{"start":146.042,"text":"But his father was able to sell the restaurant and instead Robertson went to the University of Michigan where he earned an undergraduate and masters degree concurrently in the early-1950s. "}],[{"start":155.42,"text":"After three years in the US Navy, Robertson landed in Smith Barney’s corporate finance department. "},{"start":161.16199999999998,"text":"His coverage area included Nebraska, where at one point he helped a rising Omaha investor, Warren Buffett, take a large stake in American Express as the credit card company sought to recover from a scandal. "}],[{"start":172.94,"text":"Robertson was set to take a spot leading Smith Barney’s office in Los Angeles but was instead sent to San Francisco to fill an unexpected hole. "},{"start":180.719,"text":"He was familiar with the city after landing in the Bay Area for a week’s stay upon his discharge from the navy. "}],[{"start":187.10999999999999,"text":"His Smith Barney bosses expected him to be calling on the forestry companies, Chevron, and other old-line Northern California stalwarts. "},{"start":194.88899999999998,"text":"Instead, he believed the real action was 30 miles south of the city on the peninsula where the likes of Hewlett-Packard and Intel were ushering in the computing era. "}],[{"start":203.79999999999998,"text":"“I realised the economic base of the city was the valley,” he later said. "}],[{"start":208.85,"text":"In 1968, Robertson broke off from Smith Barney to co-found Robertson, Colman and Siebel, a firm established to do trading and banking strictly for the technology sector. "},{"start":219.367,"text":"Thomas Weisel, another promising San Francisco banker, joined a few years later. "},{"start":224.334,"text":"But a conflict with Weisel would set off Robertson to form another firm, Robertson Stephens. "}],[{"start":230.41,"text":"Weisel would rebrand the previous firm Montgomery Securities. "},{"start":234.277,"text":"The Four Horsemen — Robertson Stephens, Montgomery Securities, Hambrecht & Quist and Alex. "},{"start":240.244,"text":"Brown & Sons — would go on to dominate technology dealmaking with their tight relationships in the clubby California tech scene. "}],[{"start":247.26999999999998,"text":"“Sandy never raised his voice, never needed to pound the table and never oversold,” said Larry Sonsini, the eminent Silicon Valley lawyer. "}],[{"start":255.52999999999997,"text":"Stock trading remained a lucrative activity with wide spreads, and the firms carried large equity research staffs at a time when IPOs were considered the crowning achievement for growing companies. "}],[{"start":266.14,"text":"The late 1990s brought threats and opportunities. "},{"start":269.48199999999997,"text":"The Wall Street bulge-bracket firms by then had realised the opportunity in Silicon Valley. "},{"start":274.412,"text":"Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse First Boston and others would establish massive offices across San Francisco as well as south in Palo Alto and Menlo Park. "}],[{"start":284.68,"text":"At the same time, a frenzied stock market allowed Robertson and the others to capture the value they created, even if it meant their firms would be subsumed into behemoths. "}],[{"start":293.62,"text":"In 1998, Bank of America acquired Robertson Stephens for $530mn. "},{"start":299.612,"text":"But the firm ended up in the hands of Fleet Bank and eventually shuttered in 2002. "}],[{"start":304.6,"text":"Robertson had left by 1999. "},{"start":307.47900000000004,"text":"With a Robertson Stephens colleague, he then set up Francisco Partners, a technology PE firm that today manages more than $40bn. "}],[{"start":316.39000000000004,"text":"Around the same time, Robertson met Benioff, an Oracle executive, who had set up a company that offered a new business model, renting software to customers rather than selling licences. "}],[{"start":327.51000000000005,"text":"Benioff’s start-up, Salesforce.com, had less than $100mn in revenue when Robertson joined as an adviser and director. "},{"start":335.47700000000003,"text":"Eventually, Salesforce went public and Robertson served on its board until 2023 when its revenue approached $35bn. "}],[{"start":344.13000000000005,"text":"Robertson and his then wife Jeanne, like Benioff, would become important benefactors of the hospital at the University of California, San Francisco. "},{"start":352.57200000000006,"text":"Politics also rose as an important outlet for Robertson who counted fellow San Franciscans, Nancy and Paul Pelosi, as close friends. "}],[{"start":361.49000000000007,"text":"Robertson had been a life-long Republican until he met Bill Clinton in 1992 at an event at Apple where the Democratic Arkansas governor’s commitment to the North American Free Trade Agreement impressed him. "},{"start":371.84400000000005,"text":"Robertson hosted a fundraiser for Clinton soon thereafter, with the festivities spilling into the wee hours at Robertson’s home in the Russian Hill neighbourhood of San Francisco. "}],[{"start":381.30000000000007,"text":"Robertson was a listed producer of nearly 30 Broadway shows including Hamilton, taking in the details of seats sold at what price. "},{"start":388.52900000000005,"text":"He also raised racehorses. "}],[{"start":390.94000000000005,"text":"Benioff said Robertson was obsessed with understanding how to identify successful ventures whether they were start-ups, theatre productions or thoroughbreds. "},{"start":398.89400000000006,"text":"“He really loved winners. ”"}],[{"start":401.43000000000006,"text":"Robertson is predeceased by wife, Jeanne. "},{"start":404.69700000000006,"text":"He is survived by wife Nancy, three daughters, six grandchildren and two great grandchildren. "}],[{"start":410.18000000000006,"text":""}]],"url":"https://creatives.ftacademy.cn/album/166927-1723212963.mp3"}