Cracking the Wall Street Research Monopoly

An analyst is an analyst, right? Maybe on Wall Street -- but not on the Internet. There, an analyst is likely also a lawyer, a stay-at-home parent or a college student. These are the sorts of freelancers who are doing their own research and trying to sell it on the Web.

So far, Mary Meeker has nothing to worry about. Her employer, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and the other big Wall Street houses, with their huge staffs, star analysts and unparalleled access to corporate executives, still rule. ...