The Changing Scene: Merrill Bolsters Merger DepartmentBy Brent Shearer

Merrill Lynch & Co. has tapped two bankers, Daniel M. Dickinson, 38, and Steven A. Baronoff, 39, to fill the newly created positions of co-heads of the investment bank’s merger department. “We plan to run the business as a truly global enterprise,” Baronoff said. He had been head of the bank’s retail mergers business in New York, where he will continue to be based. Dickinson will run the European m&a business from London. The appointments come in the wake of the departure of Jack Levy, a 22-year Merrill banker who had run the company’s merger business for 10 years. Mark Shafir, the former head of global technology banking at Merrill, also left recently, jumping to Thomas Weisel Partners. Levy’s plans are unknown. In addition to the elevation of Baronoff and Dickinson, William D. Rifkin, who runs the bank’s energy m&a practice, was promoted to vice chairman of investment banking. Another recent hire in m&a is Wes Walraven, who has joined the firm as a managing director in the m&a group, focusing on industrial clients. Baronoff noted that under the new structure all of the 25 or so managing director-level m&a bankers will participate in increasing the deal flow and moving aggressively to expand the firm’s footprint. In discussing how Merrill will approach m&a assignments under its new leaders, Baronoff said it will cross-market its line of financial services together with its m&a advisory services. “We have a broad array of financial products and we are going to tie them into our transaction advisory work.” Dickinson’s appointment is being interpreted as an acknowledgment of the importance of European m&a. He has been working for Merrill in London for the past two years. He worked on deals like Totalfina SA’s hostile takeover of Elf Aquitaine SA and assisted in Mannesmann AG’s attempts to fend off its ultimately successful hostile acquirer, Vodafone AirTouch PLC. “You couldn’t have picked a situation that more clearly illustrates the changed situation in European m&a. Mannesmann was a jewel of the German market,” Dickinson said. He added that with that deal apparently concluded, a lot of other deals have begun to seem more feasible. “We’ve certainly been hearing more cross-border dialogue about opportunities since Mannesmann.” The Merrill European m&a head also said he expects to see more transatlantic activity in the near future, pointing to the interest of Deutsche Telecom in Qwest Communications and US West as evidence of this trend. For his part, Baronoff noted that changes in tax laws and capital gains regulations in Germany this year will also make the deal environment more friendly in Europe’s largest national market. In addressing the staff changes that have characterized the dealmaking departments at many investment banks, Baronoff said that there is still a cachet to working at the top few banks in the league tables. “There are only three places where you’re going to do trillion-dollar volume: Goldman, Morgan, and, us. We plan to put a structure in place that will attract dealmakers right out of school and keep them at Merrill for their whole career.”