Mary no Meeker after dot-com slump

The report looks at the performance of initial public offerings (IPOs) of shares in technology firms. Former Fortune cover-star Meeker claims that the long-term outlook for high-tech firms remains strong, and the report contains plenty of figures to support her claim.

The share prices of tech companies which have gone public since 1980 have increased by over $2000bn dollars, it says.

However, this figure masks a massive drop in the value of those companies in 2000, the only year in which public tech companies have destroyed value, rather than creating it.

Other headline figures also guide the eye subtly past the troubles of the past year. Since 1980, 82 IPOs have been '10 baggers' - growing in value by over 1000 per cent.

There is no count, however, of the members of the '90 per cent club' - companies whose share price has fallen 90 per cent since IPO.

Of the companies which went public between 1980 and 1998, 53 per cent are above their IPO price - which means that 47 per cent are now trading below the price investors paid for them when they launched.

An astonishing 77 per cent of companies which went public in 2000 are also 'underwater' - trading below their initial launch price.

The report is an update in a series of internet "yearbooks" which Morgan Stanley has published since 1995. While stockbroker and analyst Durlacher had the good sense to can their UK investment report, Morgan Stanley is pressing ahead as normal, with just a brief acknowledgement that the sector has had a slight "correction" of late.

"The report helps illustrate the financing excesses in technology that the markets will likely need to continue to re-set for over a period which, in our view, may last between two-to-six quarters," it states.

Willingly or unwillingly, Meeker became one of the Wall Street figures most closely associated with the dot-com bubble, and the report has been widely read as defence of the advice she gave when the Nasdaq index was still rising.

The stakes are potentially very high. Last month, a disgruntled investor took fellow analyst Henry Blodget of Merrill Lynch to court, alleging that he failed to disclose an interest in a company he told his clients buy.

Both Blodget and Meeker have defended themselves in the same way. They always made it clear that they thought many internet companies were likely to fail, they argue, and their advice will prove correct in the long-term.

"Despite the significant decline technology stocks have experienced over the past year, tech is still a large creator of wealth," the report says.

It doesn't say whether this wealth will be for investors, or just for investment banks.