Thomas Weisel Said to Be Near Settlement

San Francisco-based investment firm Thomas Weisel Partners was close to reaching a legal settlement with securities regulators to pay $12.5 million to resolve investigations of its stock analysts, but a final deal had not been struck as of late Wednesday, according to people familiar with the matter.

Several wire services reported Wednesday that a deal had been completed. But several points remain unresolved, one source said. An agreement could be announced in coming days, sources said.

Weisel spokeswoman Amanda Duckworth didn’t return phone calls seeking comment.

If a deal is struck, Weisel would be the last of 12 investment banks to agree to pay fines to resolve multiple government investigations into whether their analysts gave out intentionally skewed stock-picking advice in the late 1990s.

Ten major investment banks tentatively agreed in December to pay $1.4 billion. Regulators and the firms now are negotiating the final wording and terms of the settlement.

The Weisel agreement also would be tentative, pending the signing of final documents.

The 11th company, U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, agreed in December to pay $32.5 million to settle probes of its analysts.

The Weisel deal would call for the firm to pay a $10-million fine and an additional $2.5 million to distribute independent stock research to individual investors. The proposed settlement was first reported in the Wall Street Journal.

Regulators had initially demanded that Weisel pay $60 million. But the firm balked at that amount, and even some regulators thought the amount was far too high.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is heading up the Weisel probe along with California state regulators, who said they would abide by whatever deal the SEC reaches with the firm. An SEC spokeswoman declined to comment Wednesday.

The firm was founded in 1999 by Thomas Weisel and specializes in technology deals.