The price of winning lucrative deal mandates often means marketing with your investment dollars. 

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley--the latter being the big winner in the on-going Net IPO derby--have supported their clients in this manner. In a way, it is expected nowadays, even if it doesn't guarantee IPO business. Just because Goldman Sachs  invested in Facebook and set up a lucrative private fund to invest in the firm, doesn't mean it will win the lead underwriter spot on the deal. In any case, underwriters these days stand to rake in big fees but also bear some risk on their holdings.

Morgan Stanley's asset management arm owns about 16 million class A shares of Zynga, about 16 percent of all available shares. In addition, Morgan Stanley's mutual funds purchased 5.3 million Zynga shares at a price of $14 each. It's hard to prove that such buying was related to the marketing for the lead underwriter spot, but many would assume a relationship.

The cost of underwriting business in this case has been some paper losses. Zynga shares are down about 20 percent from the $10 IPO price. On the other hand, Morgan Stanley might have made some decent paper profits on its 4.1 million shares of LinkedIn, which it also took public. The stock is up 40 percent in the aftermarket.

For more on Morgan Stanley holdings:
- here's a Dealbook item

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