Jeffrey B. Hecktman, Chairman and CEO of Hilco Global, announced the launch of a new operating company, Hilco IP Merchant Banking. This new business unit will provide intellectual property-based financial and technical advisory services, IP monetization solutions, and will be a proprietary investor in IP-driven transactions. These services will be provided to IP owners and the financial and investment communities.

“Hilco IP Merchant Banking adds a unique and critical capability to our current suite of valuation, monetization and advisory solutions”, said Hecktman. The new patent and technology centric practice will operate as one of the 20+ operating companies within the Hilco Global portfolio and is expected to focus on the growing need for this valuable expertise. Hecktman continued, “This sector requires a unique and highly specialized skillset that will complement our current intellectual property capabilities in trademarks, domains and IP addresses”.

Hilco IP Merchant Banking will be managed by Michael D. Friedman as its Chief Executive Officer. Friedman joined Hilco earlier this year after leaving Ocean Tomo, LLC. A specialist in intellectual property finance and investing, Friedman has significant expertise in originating, structuring and financing transactions driven by IP. He has advised on and managed dozens of multi-million-dollar intellectual property transactions. Prior to 2007, Friedman founded FHS Investments, LLC, a multi-strategy hedge fund. Prior to FHS, he was Co-Head and Managing Director of UBS’s global special situations investing portfolio.

Friedman explains his vision for the new IP Merchant Banking operating company, “We will be focused on three critical areas within the intellectual property space, which will include financial and technology advisory services, proprietary intellectual property investing, and a dedicated team of monetization experts to sell and license these valuable assets.” Friedman indicated that Hilco IP Merchant Banking will seek transactions ranging from $100 million to $150 million, but we will consider deals outside of this range where appropriate."

Along with Friedman, a team of thirteen senior professionals will be joining Hilco IP Merchant Banking from Marquis Technologies – a full-service IP consultancy formed by the former leaders of Rockstar Consortium, the team behind Nortel’s historic $4.5B IP transaction. Joining in executive roles will be John Veschi (former CEO of Rockstar and Chief IP Officer of Nortel) as Chief Operating Officer; Gillian McColgan (former CTO of Rockstar and Nortel IP) as Chief Technology Officer and, Afzal Dean (former VP of Rockstar and Nortel) as Chief Licensing Officer.

Friedman, who encouraged his former colleagues to join him at Hilco Global said, “I am thrilled to welcome such an impressive team of industry leaders to our practice. Our new organization is literally filled with some of the top technology and patent experts in the world today.” Along with Veschi, McColgan and Dean will be 10 others from Marquis, all of whom have held senior positions with Rockstar and/or Nortel, having a combined tenure of over 150 years of experience.

Hilco Global is an independent and diversified financial services company and the world’s preeminent authority on maximizing the value of assets for both healthy and distressed companies. Hilco Global operates as the holding company comprised of over twenty specialized business units that work to help companies understand the value of their assets and then monetize that value. Often, Hilco Global acts as an advisor to provide consultative services in all aspects of the asset management process. Hilco Global is based in Northbrook, Illinois and has 500 professionals operating on five continents.