With the job slashing on Wall Street, we are now seeing another interesting trend -- the emergence of new boutique investment banks. Take Ken Moelis, who has spent 25 years on Wall Street and was the former President of UBS AG (USA) (NYSE: UBS).

Well, now he has his own investment bank, Moelis & Co. In fact, the firm is representing Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) on Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT)'s $44.6 billion buyout offer.

And, he thinks there will be more business -- as clients look for unbiased, quality advice. In fact, Moelis isn't wasting time hiring some top players.

For example, this week the firm hired Thane Carlston and William Derrough. For more than a decade, they have built a strong restructuring practice at Jefferies Group, Inc. (NYSE: JEF). Basically, this is a highly specialized area -- requiring lots of analysis and understanding of complex laws.

With the credit crunch -- and slowing economy -- it's inevitable that there will be buyout deals that crater. And with a talented team, Moelis is likely to provide some competition to the mega Wall Street players, which are busy repairing their balance sheets.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

Investment banking boutiques smell opportunity originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.