I think the grandparent was referring to the theory that bankers may intentionally underprice the issue so that they could extract some of the benefit from the

I think the grandparent was referring to the theory that bankers may intentionally underprice the issue so that they could extract some of the benefit from the underpricing. So for example, in the case of LinkedIn, the theory is that the bankers knew that the shares could go for 100% higher price than the IPO price and sold those shares to their buddies at a much lower price with the understanding that their buddies would pay them back a percentage of the money they make flipping the shares by doing various other business with the banks. Of course none of this is proven, but it is a theory many serious people have.