A new book, The Prince of Silicon Valley, chronicles the dealmaking of the IPO king of the 1990s: Frank Quattrone. He made a fortune as he helped more than 100 tech companies go public, which included marquee names like Cisco (CSCO), Netscape and Amazon.com (AMZN).

But those days seem quaint. In fact, the tech IPO market has been a backwater for the past decade, even though there have been some big deals -- like the offerings of Google (GOOG) and Salesforce.com (CRM).

DealBook reports that Frank Quattrone, the former First Boston high tech banker who spent four years fighting charges of obstruction of justice, is trying to change the role of analysts on Wall Street to make them glorified sales people for small, high-tech company IPOs.

That's what they were for Quattrone and they helped make him wealthy. But thanks to people like former Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MER) analyst and current Silicon Alley Insider blogger Henry Blodget, who famously trashed companies in e-mails to colleagues while boosting them in his reports, the role of Wall Street analysts has been permanently transformed. They can no longer get paid out of investment banking revenues. Instead, their compensation comes from trading revenues. And analysts are not supposed to talk to bankers unless a lawyer is present.

Quattrone makes two good points though. First, there is no career upside for analysts to cover small companies. That's because only the big companies can generate the trading or banking revenues needed to pay the analysts. Second, the most talented analysts went to work for hedge funds and private equity firms. The result is that individual investors can't get analysis for free. Quattrone fails to point out that the quality of that analysis is worth what individuals pay for it -- nothing directly and a modest sum indirectly (through trading commissions).

Frank Quattrone is a legend in tech dealmaking. He got his start in 1981 and has since worked for firms like Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse. Some of his deals include the public offerings of Netscape, Cisco Sytems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).

Well, in March, he announced that he has put together a boutique investment bank, Qatalyst Group. His team has advised on more than 400 M&A deals and 350 financings.

Despite being out of the game for some time, Quattrone still has lots of brand power. Interestingly enough, he has already snagged a plum assignment. That is, he will represent Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) CEO, Eric Schmidt, in the intricate battle between Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT). This is a according to a piece in the NYTimes.com.

OK, what will this mean for the fight? It's tough to tell. However, I'm sure Quattrone will devise something interesting. For example, there is already the beginnings of an advertising alliance between Google and Yahoo!

But whatever comes of things, I'm sure Quattrone will get a juicy fee -- and turbocharge his new firm.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

Some scandals wreck public figures on Wall Street, while others act as mere speed bumps. It looks like the latter is true for Frank Quattrone, one of the most influential investment bankers in the 1990's who was also the head of the Credits Suisse (NYSE: CS) technology banking group.

Frank Quattrone has just announced that he and some former colleagues are launching a new financial services venture called Qatalyst Group. Qatalyst will be a technology-focused merchant banking boutique headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Qatalyst Partners, its investment banking business, will provide high-end merger & acquisition and corporate finance advice to technology companies. Its investing business, Qatalyst Capital Partners, will make selective principal investments, typically alongside leading venture capital and private equity firms.

Four years ago, Frank Quattrone, head of the technology investment banking group at Credit Suisse First Boston was indicted for for obstructing justice and witness tampering. The Feds wanted to know if the bank had given certain clients preferential treatment and felt that Quattrone had asked some of his people to hide evidence.

Quattrone then went through a series of prosecutions: One ended in a mistrial, he was convicted in another case, but that was overturned on appeal and eventually prosecutors settled for a deal where the banker said he would keep his nose clean for a year. According to San Jose Mercury News: "Quattrone's only obligation under the deferred prosecution agreement was to stay out of trouble and keep the court advised of his movements."

He kept his part of the bargain and yesterday that year of good behavior ended. The charges against him are now history.

There is a clear temptation to say that Quattrone bought himself a good deal because he had millions of dollars to pay for lawyers, money that is not available to all defendants. But, others, from Enron management to Conrad Black, have also had cash for big defenses and lost.

Quattrone was able to hold his own. He almost certainly has a fairly good case as judges and juries are not jabbering dupes. At least not all of them.

Quattrone cannot escape the stigma of being prosecuted, but perhaps he will now do something that will, in the eyes of the media and Wall Street, make the finale seem fair. He says he has big plans.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Back in a bygone age – that is, the 1990s – Frank Quattrone was the Master of the Universe for dot-com IPOs. It was his franchise. Plain and simple.

As is typical in American capitalism, things did not end up nicely and he became the focus of two criminal trials. But after a long fight, prosecutors dropped the charges.

Well, he is starting to reappear. In fact, last week he gave a speech at the Western Association of Venture Capitalists, which was covered in SFGate.com.

He talked about starting his own investment bank. And, he also talked about tech buyouts, which he considers to be in the early stages.

Yes, this is vintage Quattrone. He likes to keep the competition guessing. And, it's certainly generating a lot of buzz. And, the fact remains that he is incredibly smart – and well connected – in tech.

No doubt, he helped make many people rich. In other words, if he does have a comeback, there should be a lot of money backing whatever he plans to do.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.