Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P. was founded in 1988 by Herman S. Sandler and five other executives from the firm Bear Stearns. Though today it serves companies of all sizes, the firm was founded with an emphasis on community and mid-size banks, as its founders saw that smaller financial institutions were underserved by the existing advisement system. Six months after the foundation of the firm, Christopher Quackenbush left Merrill Lynch to build Sandler's investment banking group. Two years after Sandler's establishment it formed Sandler O'Neill Mortgage Finance, an affiliate of Sandler O'Neill + Partners. The affiliate is currently headquartered in Memphis but maintains an office in New York City separate from the firm's headquarters. In 1993, the company moved to Two World Trade Center from Two Wall Street. The same year, Sandler O'Neill opened an equity sales and trading division. The following year, the firm began publishing equity research, focusing on community banks and other financial institutions. Sandler O'Neill had four satellite offices in addition to its main office in New York City. The first was opened in Boston in 1998. Offices in Atlanta and San Francisco were opened in 2003. A final satellite office was opened in 2004 in Chicago. The firm ranked among the best performing investment banking firms, advising financial firms on strategic and financial initiatives, including mergers and acquisitions and capital raising. It is one of the last privately heldinvestment banks on Wall Street, after other firms went public, including Goldman Sachs in the early 2000s. In 2010, the firm sold a substantial minority to two private equity firms: the Carlyle Group and Kelso & Company. The firm was led by James J. Dunne III, who left Bear Stearns in 1988 to help found Sandler, and Jonathan Doyle, who joined the firm in 1990. Both served as senior managing principals of the firm. Sandler O'Neill celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2013. In 2019, the company was acquired by Piper Sandler Companies.
September 11th attacks
On September 11, 2001 the firm which was headquartered on the 104th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center lost 68 of its 171 employees, 40 percent of its overall workforce. One third of the firm's partners, almost the entire equity desk, the entire syndicate desk, and all of the firm's bond traders died during the attack. Among those lost were Herman Sandler, and Christopher Quackenbush, two of the three senior executives who managed the firm. In addition to personnel, the company lost its entire computer system and nearly all of its records in the destruction. On Sept. 19th, three days after the U.S. financial markets reopened, Dunne said on CNBC that Sandler O'Neill was open for business, having restarted operations as early as September 12. After the attacks, the firm operated temporarily out of the Solow Building, in space provided by Banc of America. In early 2002, Sandler O'Neill moved from the Solow Building to 919 Third Avenue. The firm remained in that building until another move in 2012.
