Morgan Stanley Americas M&A head Eatroff departs for Comcast

By Olivia Oran

(Reuters) - Morgan Stanley's Americas M&A chief Bob Eatroff is leaving the bank for a corporate development role at Comcast Corporation, the second departure this fall of a senior dealmaker at the bank.

Eatroff will join the cable company, his longtime client, in January 2016 after spending over 20 years in the investment banking division at Morgan Stanley. He advised Comcast on several transactions over the years, including the acquisition of NBCUniversal.

Morgan Stanley, one of Wall Street's top M&A advisors, did not immediately disclose a replacement for Eatroff. Eatroff will report to Comcast Chief Financial Officer Mike Cavanagh, a former top executive from JPMorgan Chase & Co and private equity firm Carlyle Group LP.

Eatroff replaces Alexander Evans, who is joining former Chief Financial Officer Michael Angelakis at a new strategic venture in partnership with Comcast focused on investing in growth-oriented companies.

He also succeeds Bob Pick, who is retiring at the end of the year.

In October, Eatroff's M&A co-head Jim Head left Morgan Stanley to join Byron Trott's investment and financial advisory firm BDT Capital Partners LLC.

Morgan Stanley ranks No. 2, both in the United States and globally, in the M&A advisory league tables, and this week advised on several high profile deals including Shire PLC's $5.9 billion acquisition of rare disease company Dyax Corp, Visa Inc's acquisition of former subsidiary Visa Europe for $23 billion and TreeHouse Food Inc's acquisition of ConAgra Foods Inc's private brands division for $2.7 billion.

(Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)

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