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Will Rogers was fond of saying, “All I know is what I read in the papers.” He didn’t have the Internet to check fiction versus fact. This past week, we were subjected to an IPO media blitz about Groupon and Facebook. In the jaded eye of the Wall Street professional, it was fiction.

 

Any qualified investor with a dream and the right bid can get in on this week’s only IPO at its initial offering price. It’s a Dutch auction. But history tells us: Don’t look for an opening-day moonshot.

 

On the first day of September, victory laps around the Wall Street arena were few and far between. There was not much to celebrate over the year’s first eight months. With the popular stock market averages in a correction (down 10 per cent or more from their previous highs) and only 37 percent of the year’s IPOs closing above their initial offering prices, no champagne corks were popped in lower Manhattan.

Reports of the death of IPOs are greatly exaggerated. This is the time of year the IPO market goes into its seasonal hibernation period, but the real clue to “life after death” was found at last week’s U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing window. It was a busy place.