It's interesting to see a number of articles on who really made all that money during the bubble years. Besides the obvious suspects such as founders of companies, it looks like investment bankers had a license to print money on all the IPO's that they rushed to market. According to an article in SiliconValley.com, investment bankers and venture capitalists received more than $1 out of $4 raised by IPOs and related stock offerings between 1998-2001. In dollar amounts, investment bankers received more than $2 Billion in fees. Insiders and VC's received more than $8.7 Billion for selling their own shares during IPOs.

If you think about the $2 Billion in fees that investment bankers received between 1998 and 2001, it really is a staggering amount. After all, the number of people involved in technology investment banking can't be that large. Considering the performance of these IPO deals, where the median deal fell by more than 60% after the IPO, you have to start wondering if investment bankers were just a little too eager to rush companies to IPO.