Long after star analysts of the dot-com era self-destructed, together with Pets. com and its sock puppet, a new generation of Wall Street researchers is grabbing attention - and lots of money.
These Internet analysts are nowhere nearly as famous (or infamous) because Jack Grubman and Henry Blodget, who came to symbolize the conflicted, let's-put-lipstick-on-this-pig research from the dot-com era. Nor are they as influential as Mary Meeker, the onetime Queen from the Net at Morgan Stanley, whose pronouncements captivated the investing public in the actual late 1990s.
But not since those heady days of the Nasdaq stock exchange bubble has working as a technology analyst seemed so, well, sexy. Even while the economy wobbles again, there's money to be made in providing financial advice to big names like Facebook.
And the great investment houses are sparring over specialists in Web search and social networking, who are hired to tell the stories of these hot companies in order to investors. Such analysts have been jumping from one bank to another, chasing the greatest offer. Today, some of these analysts are pulling down several million dollars annually - figures that, not so long ago, would have been almost impossible.
Even in Wall Street circles, some people wonder whether all of this is another sign that Internet mania is again spinning unmanageable. Add to this the recent turbulence in the financial markets - including big declines in technology stocks - and also you might conclude that some analysts yet again were telling investors to buy at precisely the wrong time.
Gustavo G. Dolfino, president of the WhiteRock Group, a Walls Street recruitment firm, has conducted searches for roughly a dozen analyst positions to date this year, versus seven in all of 2010.
"It is red-hot available, " Dolfino says.
Whether the bull market in technology specialists will last when the economy and markets sour is anyone's guess. Hype or not, talk which companies like LinkedIn, Facebook and Groupon will change the way we live and do business - and make their shareholders rich along the way - has Wall Street pining for the fees that come with taking these businesses public. And, in turn, the banks need people who can explain these businesses to investors and, hopefully, spot the right time to buy or market.
Banking executives rarely talk publicly about how much they pay employees, especially their stars. But privately, insiders at several banks have been buzzing about numerous Internet analysts who made big-money moves this year. According to people acquainted with the compensation of various analysts, here are three analysts who have done well recently:
Douglas Anmuth was lured to JPMorgan Chase earlier this year with the pay package valued at roughly $2 million. He had been making regarding $1. 3 million at Barclays Capital, an arm of the British financial institution.
Heather Bellini landed at Goldman Sachs with a remarkable pay package really worth almost $3 million. And Mark Mahaney, whom JPMorgan tried to hire by having an offer of about $3 million, stayed on at Citigroup - after obtaining a raise.