Top media analyst Michael Nathanson has joined Moffett Research, the boutique firm started by his former colleague Craig Moffett earlier this year, and will become a partner in the company when he officially joins later in the summer.
Nathanson is a long-time analyst and most recently covered media companies for Nomura Securities.
When Nathanson joins the firm later this summer, Moffett Research LLC will become MoffettNathanson LLC.
During his tenure as Managing Director at Nomura Securities, Nathanson was twice named the No. 1 Media analyst in America, according to Institutional Investor Magazine’s All-America Research Team poll. He most recently received this top ranking in 2012, marking the sixth time in the past seven years he has earned that honor. He also received Institutional Investor’s top rankings in the now defunct Publishing & Advertising Agencies and the Broadcast & Radio sectors in past years.
Nathanson was previously the Senior Media Analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC, where he spent twelve years covering, at various times, U.S. Media, European Media, and Global Advertising Agencies. Before joining Bernstein in 1998, Nathanson worked for Time Inc. and Rainbow Media, then a joint venture of Cablevision and NBC. Nathanson received a B.A. from Brandeis University and a Master's degree from the Yale School of Management.
Nathanson worked closely with Moffett at Bernstein for about eight years, and the two regularly collaborated in research. Nathanson and Moffett were also two of the three originators, with former Bernstein analyst Tom Wolzien, of Bernstein’s popular weekly Weekend Media Blast, a must-read among media industry executives and a publication which during their tenure became one of the most widely-read pieces of research on Wall Street.
“We’re getting the band back together again,” Nathanson said in a statement. “Now, more than ever, what matters to media investors is insight across the whole value chain,” he continued. “I’m really eager to start working with Craig again.”
Moffett shared a similar view. “One plus one is three. Michael is the most insightful Media analyst around. But what’s most exciting is that he makes my work better, and vice versa,” Moffett said in a statement.
With the addition of Michael Nathanson, the new MoffettNathanson will bring together six seasoned investment professionals – Moffett, Nathanson, Patrick O’Connell, Ethan Steinberg, John Towers, and David Cielusniak – each of whom brings more than a decade of investment advisory experience. Five of the partners – Moffett, Nathanson, O’Connell, Steinberg, and Towers – were previously colleagues at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co, LLC. They are joined by attorney David Cielusniak, formerly of Conquest Capital Group, who serves as the firm’s General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, and Chief Operating Officer.
