The Prince of Silicon Valley: Frank Quattrone and the Dot-Com Bubble [Hardcover]

Randall Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 19, 2010

RISE, FALL AND RETURN

The Prince of Silicon Valley traces the rise of the foremost investment banker of the Internet stock-market bubble, from the back streets of South Philadelphia to the peak of finance as the highest paid banker on Wall Street.

From Cisco to Netscape to Amazon, Frank Quattrone took some of the biggest names in technology public. During the bubble years of 1999 and 2000, his California-based technology banking group led the most hot initial public offerings, which lifted the entire stock market to record heights.

But after the bubble burst, the hot stocks cooled and ordinary investors lost billions. It emerged that brokers in Quattrone’s firm had created lucrative investment accounts, stuffed with hot IPOs, for banking clients who became known as “Friends of Frank.” Some of the brokers, regulators charged, cut off other investors who refused to pay back a share of their IPO profits.   

And so Quattrone and his firm became embroiled in no less than four different investigations of bubble-related misconduct, culminating in two criminal trials against Quattrone for obstruction of justice, the first resulting in a mistrial, the second in a conviction in 2004. After his conviction was overturned by an appeals court in 2006, Quattrone returned in triumph to the banking business, advising no less than Internet search giant Google on corporate strategy.

But the story of his fall from grace, however temporary, remains a cautionary tale of ambition gone wrong--of a Wall Street Icarus who flew too close to the sun. 'The Prince of Silicon Valley' is an absorbing noir detective story of the investigations and trials that brought him to the brink of disaster.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There is probably no single figure better suited to embody both the successes and excesses of the late 1990s tech bubble than Credit Suisse First Boston technology banking leader Frank Quattrone. The man behind some of the hottest technology IPOs of the decade, Quattrone's rise from South Philly street tough to the highest echelons of the banking industry, and the questionable practices that took him there and ultimately landed him in court for obstruction of justice, is the stuff of modern-day myth. Unfortunately, in the hands of Wall Street Journal reporter Smith, Quattrone's story is buried under a thicket of detail and minutiae without a clear line of analysis to help lay readers understand exactly what went wrong (for example, the author details instances where stock analysts were pressured to give positive coverage of companies doing business with Quattrone's group, without explaining what an analyst does or how their work affects the stock market). While an important and frequently compelling account, the book conveys little about the central personalities and reads very much like the court transcripts upon which it is based. (Jan.)
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Review

"[Randy Smith has written] a meticulous reconstruction of one of the most puzzling mysteries of the dot-com era; the definitive expose of the rigged IPO game; [and] a cautionary tale of classic bubble behavior."-- James B. Stewart, author of Den of Thieves and DisneyWars

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1 edition (January 19, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312555601
• ISBN-13: 978-0312555603
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,109,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Randall Smith has been a reporter for The Wall Street Journal for nearly three decades. The son of a New York City publicist, he graduated from Harvard College, served as a Lieutenant (j.g.) in the U.S. Navy, and worked at the New York Post and New York Daily News before joining the Journal in 1981. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and two sons.

In 2002, Smith and colleague Susan Pulliam won the George Polk award for stories about an investigation of how brokers at Credit Suisse First Boston charged trading clients excessive commissions in exchange for receiving valuable shares of hot initial public offerings. In 2003, Smith and a group of colleagues shared a Pulitzer Prize for articles about corporate scandals.

The articles about Credit Suisse became the springboard for "The Prince of Silicon Valley: Frank Quattrone and the Dot-Com Bubble" after Quattrone, who as the firm's top tech banker led more IPOs than any Wall Street rival, was tried and convicted in 2004 of obstructing the commissions-for-IPOs investigation. Quattrone denied wrongdoing, his conviction was overturned in 2006, and he returned to the securities business in 2008.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read cautionary tale in business ethics ..., June 9, 2011

By 

Thomas J. Goff (LOS ANGELES, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Prince of Silicon Valley: Frank Quattrone and the Dot-Com Bubble (Hardcover)

As the hot stocks offered by social media start-ups revive speculative fever on Wall Street, take time to read this wise and cautionary tale of the "dot.com" bubble that collapsed as the current century began. It should be required reading in every business ethics course in the nation's universities.

This book was five careful years in its research and writing but was mostly overlooked when it was published because the book's principal focus -- street-smart Frankie Quattrone of Philadelphia who became the boldest and most successful investment banker doing Internet IPOs in the late 1990s -- had his 2004 criminal conviction overturned by an appeals court in 2006. The tale is still worth the telling and it is told here by one of the best.

The author, Randall Smith, is now the dean of investigative reporters at the Wall Street Journal - and by far the most respected. Smith has won or shared the nation's very highest journalism awards. I was Randy's first editor in the distant 1970s when he first returned to New York City from a tour as a U.S. Naval officer. I was impressed then at his skill and powerful writing. I was even more in awe when I read this careful, detailed account of a financial decade every bit as clever and dangerous as our own.