Is there hope for the IPO market?

Posted Apr 1st 2009 1:10PM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: SEC Filings, Initial Public Offerings, Visa Inc. (V)

According to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, last year was horrible for IPOs. The number of deals plunged 80.7%, with the overall amount raised down 54.9%. In all, there were 57 IPOs and total proceeds came to $29.4 billion. Interesting enough, the Visa (NYSE: V) IPO accounted for $17.9 billion (it was the largest IPO in U.S. history).

Basically, the deal activity has been the slowest since the 1970s. In fact, there was only one public offering in Q1 of this year.

Unfortunately, the malaise could continue. After all, there are only a handful of filings in registration. Plus, it can easily take half a year to get an IPO through the SEC process.

For the most part, the IPO market needs a red-hot deal. Actually, we may get one this week; that is, the IPO for Changyou. Based in China, the company operates one of the largest multiplayer online gaming platforms. And, the growth rate has been staggering (and profits are lush).

And, there could be lots of excitement from a Facebook IPO. Although, given that they are searching for another CFO, it may take awhile for this deal to hit the markets (say by the end of this year or early 2010).

But at least there are some signs of hope for IPOs.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and the founder of BizEquity, a free online business valuation tool for small businesses.

Tags: Changyou, Facebook, IPOs, PricewaterhouseCoopers, V