A consummate networker and dealmaker

Soon after Jonathan Goodwin launched LongAcre Partners in 2000, he was hit by the bubble bursting in internet and media asset prices.

"We certainly learned a lot from starting at the wrong time," he says.

Mr Goodwin has always wanted his investment banking boutique to be Europe's answer to Allen & Company, the US merger advisory firm. He feels that the deal with Jefferies will give him the infrastructure and the contacts to play in a bigger field.

Mr Goodwin is the largest shareholder in LongAcre and it is believed that he is set to receive about £14m, mostly in Jefferies' shares. He will become the chairman of the US investment bank's global media practice, and is expected to become a "player" in that arena.

With long-standing ties

to UK media executives, including Elisabeth Murdoch, Kelvin MacKenzie, the former Sun editor, and Steve Morrison of All3Media, he is a consummate networker and dealmaker.

LongAcre, whose fee revenues almost doubled to £15.8m last year, has advised on €4.3bn (£2.9bn) of deals, including the sale of uSwitch to EW Scripps and several deals for John McCall MacBain's Trader Classified Media group.