While indiscriminate investor demand was driving almost every TMT initial public offering (IPO) sky-high, investment bankers and the companies were able to name their price and fund managers had little choice but to grab a slice.

But the boot is now on the other foot. Large institutions are sparring with both lead managers and their clients.

"Pricing power has gone back to the investors," said one equity syndicate manager at one European investment bank, noting it had become virtually impossible to raise investor enthusiasm for ambitious young companies without financial track records.

"A number have said they are not coming into new issues, although the truth is, if you offer them a great story, they will have to," the syndicate manager told Reuters on Tuesday.

Fund managers spoke of game of "chicken" between bankers trying to sell stocks and increasingly wary investors.

"The buyers take the price down to the point at which they are challenging the issuers to withdraw," one fund manager at a major British institution told Reuters. "They want to buy it one penny above the price at which the issuers would not issue it."

This price stand-off has already led to a number of companies pulling the plug on flotation plans.

Companies such as Swedish state-owned telecoms group Telia and German Internet service provider T-Online have slashed offer prices in an effort to get their paper into the market. And some never make it at all.

Britain's Opal Telecom, Internet group Telecity and corporate wireless firm Project Telecom were among the latest casualties of volatile market conditions as they halted planned IPOs. Video-on-demand firm Yes Television pulled its second IPO attempt earlier this week.