Why Wall Street is Losing Control of Tech IPOs—Data Sheet

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In May, before Uber went public, I told you I was bored with IPOs.

Michael Moritz, among the most consistently successful venture capitalists of his generation, has taken my argument a step further: He is predicting the end of a certain kind of IPO altogether.

In a commentary in The Financial Times, the canny investor who backed Yahoo, Google, and oodles of others, points to the so-called direct listings of business messaging app Slack and music streamer Spotify as proof that the days of investment-banker-led initial public offerings are over. He notes that we are approaching the 15^th anniversary of Google’s IPO, an attempt at a certain kind of auction that would cut out the relatively useless role of bankers. Though Google went public just fine, the auction concept failed to catch on, and no important company used the method of going public again.

Now, with the direct listing concept, startups have a new way of going around bankers. (Moritz has a dog in this fight: Lower fees to bankers mean greater proceeds for startups and possibly better returns for investors.) In direct listings, companies simply place existing shares on the market and allow them to start trading. Moritz sees a future where this is the norm. In that scenario, bankers would be left to focus on breaking up companies like Viacom and CBS. And then putting them back together. And then breaking them up again. And so on.

I suspect that direct listings will continue to surge so long as companies that already have gorged on ample funding and don’t need to raise more in an IPO continue to go public. The day will probably come after that when capital is scarce and traditional IPOs are in vogue again. And then investment bankers will be able to rest easily about being able to afford their summer and winter vacation homes.

Adam Lashinsky

On Twitter: @adamlashinsky

Email: adam_lashinsky@fortune.com