Tagged: IPO

"It sucked the air out of the room."

NEW YORK (AP) — It's been a month since Facebook's IPO fell flat and in that time, the market for initial public offerings has collapsed.

No company has gone public since May 18, compared with 19 in the same period a year ago. Fourteen offerings have been withdrawn or delayed, according to Dealogic.

There are no public offerings scheduled this week. Of course, thanks to the European debt crisis, financial markets haven't been terribly conducive to IPOs. Still, venture capitalists say the fallout from Facebook's rocky IPO is making companies — especially those in the technology sector — cautious about going public.

Facebook's much-publicized first sale of stock to the public started with a bang late this morning as the price per share jumped. But though the volume of shares sold was a record for an initial public offering, the stock's price gave up its gains as the day continued.

By the end of trading in the U.S., Facebook had settled right at the $38 initial offering price that had been set before shares went on sale.

Facebook filed for its initial public stock offering in February, and the IPO could take place at any time in the next several weeks.

Should you buy the stock? We ducked that question a month ago on Money Matters but now, financial commentator Greg Heberlein is willing to offer some advice. 

As with many financial issues, the answer is dependent on your personal circumstances.

What goes up often comes back down. Seattle-based real estate website Zillow, Inc. set its IPO price at $20 a share yesterday. It was offered for sale on the NASDAQ Stock Market at $60 a share this morning, but quickly fell into the $40 range.

It hit a low point at $32.50. By the close of trading, it was selling for $35.80...a 79% increase over the IPO price. 

LinkedIn's IPO seemed like a flashback to the heyday of the 1990's. The company's stock doubled in value on its first day of trading. On this week's Money Matters, financial commentator Greg Heberlein thinks this will be a good year for IPOs. At least three locally based companies are preparing to go public, and more may be waiting in the wings.

"Initial Public Offering," or I-P-O, is a buzz term that was talked about a lot in the boom years of the late 1990s – especially in Seattle, where lots of high-tech startup companies were thriving at that time.  They've been pretty scarce lately.  But they may be coming back.