Can Goldman Get its Mojo Back?

You didn’t know Goldman had lost it? Well welcome to our world, the world of mergers and acquisitions, where strategic advice increasingly is just another commodity to go with corporate loans, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. isn't getting the respect it used to.

While New York-based Goldman remains No. 1 in M&A during a record year for takeovers, the perennial leader since 2001 is getting paid less for its advice. Fees totaling 0.31 percent of the $802 billion in transactions Goldman helped arrange during the past four quarters are down from 0.37 percent for the previous 12 months, according to company reports and data compiled by Bloomberg.

Goldman's lost cachet is reflected in the growing use of multiple advisers. More than seven firms, on average, got hired in each of this year's 10 biggest acquisitions, up from fewer than five last year and about six in 2002, the previous high, according to Bloomberg data. Goldman, the second-largest securities firm by market value, now shares the revenue and credit on about 50 percent of the takeovers it arranges compared with less than 33 percent in 2001.

The time when hiring Goldman Sachs was ``like hiring a surgeon'' because ``M&A was mysterious'' may be gone, says Brad Hintz, the securities industry analyst at New York's Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. and the former treasurer at Morgan Stanley and chief financial officer at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Goldman spokesman Peter Rose declined to comment. When we saw him at our home away from home, with a glass of Eau de Stepney in front of him, his lips were still sealed.

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