For the first half of this year, A123 generated revenues of $42.9 million, yet sustained a loss of $40.7 million. This deal certainly will test the appetite for investors' willingness to take risks.

Artio Global Investors: This is the U.S. asset management division of Julius Baer Holding AG. Artio has an assortment of "proprietary" investment funds with an international focus. From 2003 to 2009, assets under management went from $7.5 billion to $53.3 billion. During this time period, revenues have gone from $106 million to $422 million.

Select Medical Holdings: This is one of largest operators of specialty hospitals and outpatient rehab clinics in the U.S. Since its founding in 1997, Select Medical has grown revenues to $2.1 billion.

Major demographic trends are highly favorable for Select Medical. The number of people age 65 or older is expected to grow by 2.9% annually for the next 20 years (this compares to 1.2% for the past 20 years).

Shanda Games: This is an online gaming company based in China. And, in light of the successful performance of a similiar deal -- Changyou.com (NASDAQ: CYOU), which has increased more than 150% -- this offering should be hot.

For the first half of this year, Shanda's revenues spiked 42.7% to $322 million, with profits of $100 million. There are roughly 9.73 million active paying accounts.

Vitacost.com: This is an etailer for health and wellness products (with more than 23,000 offerings). The company has successfully pursued a high-discount strategy (which has been helped because of the strong infrastructure).

For the first half of this year, revenues increased from $68.7 million to $93.2 milion, with profits of $7.2 million. There are about 957,000 active customers.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook.