Blackstone Group
What they do: Private equity, investment banking, real estate, mergers and acquisitions, and more.
How long they've been doing it: Since 1985
Who runs it: Steve Schwarzman
Where are they located: NYC, San Francisco, Boston, LA, Dublin, London, Paris, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul and more
Fact: Blackstone throws some killer parties
Silver Lake
What they do: Private equity (mostly in technology)
How long they've been doing it: Since 1999
Who runs it: Glen Hutchins
Where are they located: NYC, Menlo Park, San Francisco, Cupertino, London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo
Fact: In case you haven't heard, Silver Lake is taking Dell private in the biggest PE deal since the financial crisis
FBN Securities
What they do: Institutional brokerage, research and trading, capital introduction
How long they've been doing it: Since 1983
Who runs it: Dennis Naso
Where are they located: NYC, San Diego
Fact: FBN has a reputation for being a firm where 'you eat what you kill.'
Jefferies
What they do: Investment bank (and they just merged with Leucadia, a company known as "Baby Berkshire")
How long they've been doing it: Since 1962
Who runs it: Rich Handler
Where are they located: NYC, Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, London, Frankfurt, Zürich, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo, Mumbai, and more.
Fact: Jefferies paid out bonuses in cash in 2012.
Evercore
What they do: Investment banking and advisory firm
How long they've been doing it: Since 1996
Who runs it: Roger Altman
Where are they located: HQ in NYC with offices all over the U.S., U.K., Mexico, Hong Kong, Brazil and Canada
Fact: Roger Altman gets a ton of respect on the Street and was a Deputy Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton administration.
GetCo
What they do: High Frequency Trading
How long they've been doing it: Since 1999
Who runs it: Stephen Schuler and Dan Tierney
Where are they located: London, Chicago, NYC, Singapore, Hong Kong, Palo Alto
Fact: GetCo bought Knight Capital when it went bust.
Perella Weinberg
What they do: Advisory and asset management services
How long they've been doing it: Since 2006
Who runs it: Joseph Perella, Peter Weinberg
Where are they located: New York, Austin, Denver, San Francisco, London, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Beijing
Fact: Bankers like Perella's size — it's too small to be impacted by Dodd-Frank regulation.
B. Riley & Co.
What they do: Full service investment bank; corporate finance, research, sales, trading
How long they've been doing it: Since 1997
Who runs it: Bryant Riley
Where are they located: Los Angeles, Newport Beach, San Francisco, NYC, Boston and Atlanta
Fact: This is a growing business. They recently acquired smaller rival Caris & Co.
BlackRock
What they do: Asset management firm
How long they've been doing it: Since 1988
Who runs it: Larry Fink
Where are they located: HQ is in NYC with offices all over the world.
Fact: BlackRock is the biggest asset manager with 3.8 trillion AUM
Lazard Capital Markets
What they do: Broker-dealer, who also do equity research and securities underwriting
How long they've been doing it: Since 2005
Who runs it: William Buchanan Jr.
Where are they located: HQ in NYC
Fact: Capital markets sput out from its parent company, Lazard, which has been around since 1848.
Guggenheim Financial
What they do: Investment banking, asset management and advisory services
How long they've been doing it: Since 1999
Who runs it: Alan Schwartz
Where are they located: NYC, Chicago and in 23 cities across the US, Europe, and Asia
Fact: Expansion! Guggenheim just bought $1 billion annuity business, Sun Life.
CAIS
What they do: Online exchange for alternative investment funds and products servicing the wealth management industry
How long they've been doing it: Since 2009
Who runs it: Matthew C. Brown, Rafay H. Farooqui and Jeremy C. Norton
Where are they located: New York, Sydney
Fact: This company bring hedge fund products to smaller investment shops, an idea that's catching on.
Waverly Advisors
What they do: Research, and advisory, they launched a public fund in December.
How long they've been doing it: Since 2010
Who runs it: Andrew Barber
Where are they located: Corning, NY
Fact: Their new public fund has the flexibility to trade hedge fund strategies but with the fees and liquidity of a mutual fund.
Wolfe Trahan & Co.
What they do: Investment research
How long they've been doing it: Since 2008
Who runs it: Edward M. Wolfe, François Trahan, Peter W. Ryan, David J. Malat
Where are they located: NYC
Fact: In 2012 Institutional Investor named them the #12 research firm between Goldman and Jefferies
Carlyle Group
What they do: Private equity and financial services
How long they've been doing it: Since 1987
Who runs it: William Conway, David Rubenstein
Where are they located: Washington DC as well as 32 offices in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Japan, Asia and Australia
Fact: Former Jefferies CFO Joseph Schenk just joined Carlyle to launch their financial services division.
Virtu Financial
What they do: High Frequency Trading
How long they've been doing it: Since 2008
Who runs it: Vincent "Vinnie" Viola
Where are they located: NYC, LA, London, Singapore, Dublin
Fact: Virtu showed it had big boy chops when it almost bought Knight Capital. Also, they're part owned by Silver Lake.
Goldman Sachs
What they do: Goldman Sachs needs no introduction.
How long they've been doing it: Since 1869
Who runs it: Lloyd Blankfein
Where are they located: NYC, Hong Kong, London and more.
Fact: It's still the baddest bank on the Street, ask anyone.
