| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 1985 |
| Founder(s) | George Needham, Raymond Godfrey, David Townes |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, United States |
| Key people | John Prior, CEO Raj Rajaratnam COO (former) |
| Products | Investment banking Asset management |
| Website | www.needhamco.com |
Needham & Company is an independent investment bank and asset management firm specializing in advisory services and financings for growth companies. Needham & Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Needham Group, which also operates a private equity investment business and an investment management business.
Since its founding, the firm has acted as lead or co-manager in more than 500 public offerings, including 145 IPOs, raising in excess of $32.3 billion, and as placement agent on over 65 private offerings as of 2007.
The firm, which is headquartered in New York City also has offices in Boston, Massachusetts, Menlo Park, and San Francisco, California.
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Needham was founded in 1985 by George Needham, Raymond Godfrey, and David Townes. George Needham was formerly a managing director of First Boston Corporation, where he established its business development and technology investment banking groups. Raymond Godfrey was vice president of business development at First Boston beginning in 1977. He left Needham in the 1990s but returned in 2000. David Townes, who also co-founded the firm, had previously been an investment banker at Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb focused on technology companies.
Among its many other assignments, Needham was an underwriter for the initial public offering for Google in 2005.[1]
In October 2009, a former Needham Chief Operating Officer, Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire founder of Galleon Group, was charged with insider trading a decade after leaving the company; his work at Needham was never called into question.[2][3]
The company offers a full line of financial services, including brokerage, asset management, and research. In all its activities, Needham, focuses primarily on serving emerging growth industries and their investors.
Within its investment banking division, Needham & Company provides various advisory and fiancing services, which include:
Needham Investment Management, another wholly owned subsidiary of The Needham Group, offers several mutual funds and hedge funds, most notably, The Needham Growth Fund (NEEGX), which has been rated a top-performing mutual fund since its inception.[4][5]
Needham Asset Management, another affiliate, controls Needham Capital Partners, which manages private equity funds that invest primarily in growth companies.