How did IB work before Excel and PowerPoint

Hi all,

A little light Sunday post.

My team and I just spent the past week working 10+ hours/day (I know that's nothing, we're all full time students though and it's final's season) cranking out a pitchbook from scratch for a few former bankers who teach at our school now. In addition to all the valuations, then M&A and LBO analysis, it was insane thinking about how many hours we spent formatting small things on PPT.

This made me think - how did IB professionals "back in the day" make and continuously update pitchbooks (10-20x) without a computer? Moreover, I can't imagine building all these models by hand w/o Excel. Obviously, CapIQ/FactSet/Bloomberg weren't available either so I imagine they must've read countless Q's and K's.

Curious as to whether any of you guys have any insight on this.

 
Most Helpful

Re-posted comment from mergersandacquisitions78(https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/user/92397)

*I still have to write my history of investment banking post. Someday, I will find the time.*

*Lotus-123 came out in the early-80s and that changed everything. That, along with the M&A boom, was really the birth of investment banking as we know it today from a junior banker perspective. Excel took over from Lotus in the 1990s but in a sense spreadsheets are spreadsheets. Its no surprise that the first formal analyst programs were in the early to mid 80s.*

*For a few years before Lotus-123, there was apparently "the computer" which associates (analysts were very rare before spreadsheets) had to book where you provided model inputs and then an hour later, you got outputs.*

*Before that it was graph paper and a calculator with a typing pool that typed up the model outputs. I'm told my people who were junior bankers in that era that it was a blessing and curse. Obviously it was a pain in the ass but people were thoughtful about the analysis they wanted. There was no "run me an accretion / dilution analysis for 12 targets at 5 different premia using base case, upside case and downside case earnings, and I want that at 8am tomorrow"*

[Link to thread](https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/comment/1714770#comment-1714770)

 

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