Another boutique investment bank acquisition gone bad. It's the third time Silicon Valley Bank's parent has called off an investment banking initiative. Tech Confidential has the details.

Days after the deal closed for $100 million in cash plus an $85 million earnout, The Deal interviewed Alliant CEO Jim Kochman (picture at right). The opening part of the interview should have served as a warning of future trouble:

The Deal's Olaf Domis: Cultural issues are often the toughest ones facing acquired investment banks. How will this play out in the deal with SVB?

Jim Kochman: I have to tell you, it was the issue that caused us and SVB the greatest concern, because if you try to come up with a list of successful acquisitions of investment banks, you come up with maybe Robertson Stephens. And even they in the last couple of months have been seeing some problems.

I guess SVB couldn't succeed where many, many others hadn't before it. Go figure.

Tags: sivb, svb, alliant, vc, venture+capital