NEW YORK, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Tidal Partners, a mergers

and acquisitions advisory firm launched in 2022 by former

Centerview Partners dealmakers, has hired investment banker

Anand Sankaralingam from Evercore ( EVR ), according to people

familiar with the matter.

Sankaralingam, who joined Evercore ( EVR ) in 2014 and is currently

on gardening leave, will start his new role at Tidal Partners

this month and focus on dealmaking in the software industry, the

sources said, requesting anonymity as the matter is private.

Sankaralingam, who will be based in Palo Alto, California,

has advised on deals involving companies such as Palo Alto

Networks ( PANW ), Tesla, Facebook, Yahoo,

Aruba, EverCommerce ( EVCM ), eSentire, and Intapp ( INTA ).

Prior to his stint at Evercore ( EVR ), Sankaralingam was an

engineer at Netflix and Yahoo for more than six years, according

to his LinkedIn profile.

Tidal Partners declined to comment. Evercore ( EVR ) did not respond

to requests for comment.

Palo Alto-based Tidal Partners was started by veteran

technology bankers David Handler and David Neequaye. Their firm,

which employs about 30 people, according to its website, has

advised on notable transactions including Cisco Systems' ( CSCO )

$28 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Splunk -

a deal which closed last year.

Tidal Partners has also advised on other deals, including

ServiceNow's ( NOW ) acquisition of G2K Group and Bloom Energy's ( BE )

$550 million convertible notes offering. Last year, the

firm worked with software maker OpenGov on its $1.8 billion sale

to family-owned communications services provider Cox

Enterprises.