Category Archives: The IPO Buzz

Moonshots and blockbusters conjure up excitement in IPO Valley. An IPO moonshot is an opening-day gain of 100 percent or more, while a blockbuster is an offering that aims to raise $1 billion or more. Facebook (FB-proposed) is a blockbuster. It remains to be seen if it will be a moonshot.

Facebook (FB-proposed) dominated the news when it announced its IPO’s offering terms and a pricing date last week. The deal is set to make its debut on Friday, May 18. However we are getting ahead of ourselves. This week’s IPO calendar has a dozen companies waiting to get priced. But let’s take a quick peak at Facebook first.

 

Two IPOs are coming to town this week with all the fanfare of a three-ring circus. They are The Carlyle Group L.P. and Tilly’s. The question is, “What will the circus grounds look like after their opening-day show is over?”

 

Technology companies are the shining stars in the spring IPO skies. Last week’s calendar produced a moonshot and a starburst while the pending Facebook (FB – proposed) IPO is waiting in the wings.

 

 

Technology was king in the U.S. stock markets during this year’s first quarter. The Nasdaq Composite Index posted an 18.7 percent gain for Q1, the best showing by any of the three major U.S. stock market indexes. In the background, the IPO Class of 2012 was up 32.8 percent and the technology sector scored a 58.8 percent gain. If this wasn’t enough, the world is anxiously waiting for Facebook to announce its offering terms and pricing date.

 

It’s the IPO market’s own version of “March Madness.” This week’s traffic could be the busiest since December 2010. There are nine deals on the calendar, which puts the month on track to be the second-busiest March since 2000.

 

Just ahead of the first day of spring, this week’s IPO Express rolls into the Wall Street Station with seven deals on board. One is from this year’s sizzling sector, while another is from a group that has fallen from grace.

Wall Street’s equities syndicate desks burned the midnight oil last week. Bankers got two IPOs priced and brought 15 secondary offerings to market. But that’s not all. They filed plans for four companies to go public, filed 11 amendments for IPOs updating their registration statements, and put three deals on this week’s new-issues calendar.