Tom King

Co-head of global mergers group, Salomon Smith Barney

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Tom King

A couple of years ago, the New York Times ran a piece lamenting the disappearance of the "masters of the universe" style of Wall Street banker - the sort that would typically hire PR consultants to make sure that Fortune and the The Wall Street Journal touted their feats. "In the 1990s," the article concluded, "publicity is out, modesty is in."
Thomas C King was cited as one of the new school. One of Wall Street's top deal makers, Tom King had been chief strategist in 1997 for Worldcom when it outmanoeuvred British Telecom with a $37 billion bid for MCI Communications. But he was noticed fretting about a press interview. "I don't need this," he said, suspecting colleagues might view it as an attempt to bolster his career. It might also antagonize his bosses who valued teamwork. "Anyone who thinks they are in a one man show in M&A, you don't want as a banker. There are more issues than any one man can deal with." That remains his position. "We give advice," he says. "But really it's the client who is on the front line making the tough decisions that affect their company's future. Given that philosophy, it always struck me that the spotlight should not be on the bankers, but on the guys pulling the trigger, the company and the boards of directors. We're not the stars of the show here."
Still, King is regarded as an M&A phenomenon. "Tom is one of the most driven bankers on the Street," says a colleague. "As far as the work ethic goes, he's an animal. In his first year as a managing director, he was here seven days a week." Now Salomon Smith has parachuted him into London to become co-head (with Gregg Polle) of the global mergers group.
Tom King was born in 1960, one of six children. His father worked for General Electric, and the family lived on the outskirts of Boston. Tom started playing ice hockey at around five, and was recruited from high school to play for Bowdoin College, Maine, where he studied economics. He says he "wasn't even close" to turning professional but after graduating carried on playing while an equity salesman at Smith Barney in Boston. He also took up golf and running. "It's a stressful job," he says. "You've got to do something." In New York he ran four times a week, and did six New York City marathons.

King spent five years in all at Smith Barney. "It was fun, a great job," he says, "but at the same time during the mid 1980s a lot of the leveraged takeovers and hostile bids and raiders were emerging and having their heyday. It struck me that the dealmaking side was a lot more interesting and potentially better suited for my skill set." So he went to Wharton business school with the specific aim of getting into M&A.
King joined Salomon Brothers' M&A department in 1989. His first deal was a telecom privatization in Australia. "It was so far away that nobody else wanted to do it, so being the most junior person in the department, I got the assignment." He spent the next nine months there with the team from the client, Bell South. "I learnt a lot by living with those guys about the telecoms business, and I developed a bit of an industry expertise."
Then, M&A was still something of a star business, he says. Things have changed. "As M&A has become more complicated, more structure-driven, more tax-driven, it's hard for one person to be expert on every subject. If you want to give good advice, you don't want one guy dominating the relationship."
As to his own role, he sees himself "bringing experience, judgement, a strategic perspective. I've spent a lot of years in a single industry and have views in terms of strategy. Being a good M&A guy is being able to solve a bunch of equations simultaneously." Most of King's deals have been in telecoms, advising such companies as AT&T, Bell Atlantic and SBC Communications. Most notable, perhaps, was his position as senior M&A banker on all three Worldcom takeovers.
But there have been other deals. When Warren Buffett was chairman of Salomon Brothers, King was chosen as his adviser for Berkshire Hathaway's takeover of Flight Safety. He also advised one of Salomon's most notoriously demanding clients Al Dunlop ("Never volunteer to work for a client whose nickname's chainsaw") when he sold Scott Paper to Kimberly-Clark.
King is delighted to be in London. "I can't imagine a better place to be," he says. "My wife and I are very much looking forward to getting settled in for the long term." He hopes to run the London Marathon, "although I'm not sure this job will allow me the time to train - most of my spare time is spent on a plane reading Golf Digest, instead of playing."

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Tom King

Co-head of global mergers group, Salomon Smith Barney

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