Research has changed so much from when we started DLJ. At that time, the Dow Jones was trading at a premium valuation, and everyone was piled into General Motors and other really big companies. We did comprehensive research that helped institutions identify and invest in lesser-known, smaller companies at cheaper valuations and improve their performance. In the years after May Day, research became basically a handmaiden to the investment banking side of the business. It also became the handmaiden to the earnings-per-share game. The whole thing became just trying to predict what the earnings per share next quarter would be, within a penny or two. Research really couldn't predict with that much accuracy, so the research guys justified their existence by being business-getters. The real goal was to have a relationship with the company and to get them as an investment banking client. The profitability of the research business was eroding, and that squeezed the firms, but research also squeezed itself by not really being research anymore. There are still some industry experts doing real value-added work, but most of what's out there today is general and worthless, and no one's willing to pay for it.
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