Effect of the Technology Bubble on the Broker Vote

In the previous article, there was a short summary on the analyst level detail of the broker vote.  During the technology bubble in the late 1990's, there was a distortion in the vote.  At that time, the analysts covering the technology (especially Internet) sector received an increased number of votes at the investment banks.  This was an attempt to curry favor with the analyst in hopes of getting an allocation to a hot/oversubscribed IPO.  As with many situations in investment banking, this was unspoken.  On the whole, an analyst of the lead underwriter of the IPO would have a favorable reputation and the comment would be:  "He/she gives valuable insights."