Legendary Wall Street investment bank Lazard raised $854.6 million in its IPO this week, transforming the 157-year-old private partnership into a public company accountable to shareholders. It's the end of an era for Lazard, one of the last major firms on Wall Street to cling to private ownership (Goldman Sachs went public in 1999):

"The IPO marks the end of a power struggle between Lazard's day-to-day boss Bruce Wasserstein, Chairman Michel David-Weill and the bank's founding partners. David-Weill and the founding families, who are currently entitled to about 36% of the bank's profits, will be bought out in part via the IPO for $1.6 billion."