AXOM Partners, a technology-focused boutique advisory firm, has hired investment banker Buzz Black from Morgan Stanley, as it looks to strengthen its coverage of the enterprise software industry.
Black, an experienced dealmaker who has worked on several large software deals, will start his new role at AXOM in May after a period of gardening leave and will be based in San Francisco.
At Morgan Stanley, Black advised on numerous software buyouts, including Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners’ $8.4 billion takeover of Smartsheet and KKR’s $4.8 billion acquisition of Instructure last year.
He also worked on several cybersecurity deals, including the $560 million sale of Demisto to Palo Alto Networks in 2019 and the sale of eSentire to Warburg Pincus in 2017.
“A lot of large strategic buyers are going to debate whether to buy or build – and in a lot of the situations they will come to a conclusion that going out and buying something with the best team and the most cutting-edge technology is going to get them to market faster,” Black told Reuters in an interview.
Black’s addition is expected to bolster the coverage of large enterprise software providers for AXOM, which has primarily advised early-stage, venture capital-backed startups since it was launched in 2023 by three former Qatalyst Partners bankers – Brandon Hightower, Alan Bressers, and Ross Weiner.
AXOM has advised several artificial intelligence-focused companies since its founding, winning sell-side advisory roles on deals such as Rockset’s sale to OpenAI, Nvidia’s acquisition of OctoAI, Voyage AI’s sale to MongoDB, and TravelPerk’s takeover of Yokoy. AXOM has benefited from referrals from Qatalyst, Hightower told Reuters.
“Having Buzz on board with us is huge because he has a whole coverage universe of companies that he’s built over his time at Morgan Stanley that’s just additive to what we’re doing within AI, both on the buyer side and also on the strategic target side,” Hightower said.
