In the U.S., and increasingly in other countries as well, IPO securities are marketed to investors in a process known as "book-building"-one that amounts to polling institutional investors to establish a demand schedule for the issue and then allotting stock to individual investors according to...

Underwriting syndicates routinely "stabilize" the secondary market price for poorly received initial public offerings. Price stabilization practices, particularly the use of "penalty bids" aimed at discouraging immediate resale or "flipping" of IPO shares, recently have triggered litigation and...

On April 16, 2010 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil complaint against Goldman Sachs in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The complaint alleged that Goldman violated the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws, in connection with...

The production "technology" of investment banking, particularly in the pricing and distribution of securities offerings, has long depended on the ability of bankers to build and maintain networks of relationships with institutional investors and client firms. Among other benefits, these...

Auction theorists predict that bookbuilding, long the standard process for selling equity IPOs in the U.S., is about to give way to an Internet-based IPO auction process that is both more efficient and more fair. The promise of auctions is that, by using an electronic platform that gives "all"...

Non-U.S. firms frequently pay a substantial premium to have a U.S. bank lead their initial public offering of equity, even when the issuing firm is not seeking a listing on a U.S. exchange. We provide evidence that this decision reflects an expectation that U.S. banks deliver a higher quality...

Until 1970, the New York Stock Exchange prohibited public incorporation of member firms. After the rules were relaxed to allow joint stock firm membership, investment-banking concerns organized as partnerships or closely-held private corporations went public in waves, with Goldman Sachs (1999)...