As equity markets return and investors warm up to the risk trade, it looks like IPOs are poised for a strong 2011, especially in the tech sector. For example, according to a New York Times report, it looks like Groupon is in the process of talking to various Wall Street bankers to prep for a public offering.

Founded just a couple years ago, the company has grown like a weed. The website provides daily deals, which are at steep discounts. But Groupon actually gets half of the cut. Yes, it's a lucrative business as revenues reached $1 billion last year. Already Groupon is in 35 countries.

Continue reading Groupon Revs Up for an IPO

Groupon Revs Up for an IPO originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every day now brings with it 50 million tweets, according to Twitter's blog. And that number specifically excludes tweets from spammers. In 2007, daily volume was a mere 5,000. Every second, 600 tweets are unleased.

There is no shortage of 140-character outbursts, putting the microblogging site in direct competition with social media behemoth Facebook for ownership of the social media user's most current thoughts. Facebook boasts more than 60 million daily status updates, despite having a 400 million-strong user base that dwarfs Twitter's nearly 60 million. The fact that Twitter is so much smaller than Facebook only makes its ownership of the status update more compelling.

Continue reading Twitter Gaining Ground on Facebook for Status Update Field

Twitter Gaining Ground on Facebook for Status Update Field originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) wanted a piece of what could be the most interesting insurance IPO of the year, but it won't get a taste.

American International Group's (AIG) Asian life insurance unit, American International Association, is going to go public in Hong Kong for an estimated $10 billion, and JPMorgan isn't being allowed to play, insiders say, because of a sour relationship that stretches back to the September 2008 financial crisis. As a result, it will be the only major investment bank not being admitted to the party.

Continue reading AIG Skips JPMorgan for Asian IPO

AIG Skips JPMorgan for Asian IPO originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Tech sector IPOs surged by a factor of five in terms of value from 2008 to 2009. A mere $749.2 million raised in 2008 jumped to $3.8 million so far this year, according to data from Thomson Reuters. In 2008, only three went public, while 10 tech companies made the plunge in 2009. And, expectations are even higher for 2010.

Paul Bard, a research analyst at Renaissance Capital, forecasts between 40 and 50 tech industry IPOs next year, in which $4 billion to $5 billion in capital would be raised. "We've been expecting an uptick in technology because it has really been underrepresented in the market over the last few years," says Bard. The IPO market for high-tech companies was strong in 2007, but it seized up along with virtually every other form of capital raising when the financial crisis erupted in 2008.

Continue reading Tech IPO comeback: $50 billion in 2010?

Tech IPO comeback: $50 billion in 2010? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The venture capital (VC) industry demonstrated its commitment to the clean technology space in the second quarter of 2009, pumping $1.2 billion into the sector, according to a report by GTM Research. VC investments in cleantech are up 43.5% from the first quarter of the year, when $836 was put into play in the cleantech space.

The number of transactions increased, as well. In the first quarter, 59 deals were completed, and deal-flow surged 44% to 85 in the quarter just finished. Average deal size remained fairly consistent: $14.2 million for the first quarter and $14.1 for the second.

Continue reading VC for cleantech surges to $1.2bn in Q2

VC for cleantech surges to $1.2bn in Q2 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Fortress (FIG) tries for some IPO magic originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Wall Street Journal sees through the upcoming Classmates.com IPO, and so should you.

Classmates.com will help you find your high school classmates, for a fee. The problem is that finding people on the Internet through an Internet community is social networking: something much larger sites like MySpace and Facebook already offer. And those sites are free.

Classmates Media is selling $125 million worth of stock this week, and this looks more like a cynical effort to capitalize on Wall Street's hunger for social networking than an investment opportunity.

In some ways, it reminds me of the deluge of low-quality alternative energy companies that have come public in recent years. Classmates has story stock written all over it, but Classmates really isn't the story. It just looks the part, and is hoping investors will want a piece.

Seeing through the Classmates.com IPO originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 04 Sep 2007 10:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

3PAR drives for an IPO originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

On Tuesday July 17, 2007 Charlie Rose did an interview with Jesse Wang, Chairman of China Jianyin Investment Ltd. about China's foray into equities and the recent investment of $3 billion into Blackstone Group L.P (NYSE: BX). Here are some of the primary issues that were discussed by Mr. Wang.

1. China formed a government sponsored investment entity with $200 billion of it's $1.3 trillion (and growing) capital reserves to allow them to diversify and receive higher long term returns.
2. Although they have invested $3 billion in Blackstone, they have not fully developed their business plan for the new fund. The timing of the investment was driven by the timing of the Blackstone IPO and the opportunity afforded them. They will have no say in how the money is invested or how the company is run. They also have an exclusivity clause preventing them from investing in any competing companies for one year.
3. It is their intention to invest the money strictly in equities, as investors, over a long period of time, which could be decades.
4. They do not see putting this money to work inside of China because they are concerned that this would only add fuel to an already over heated market.
5. They are aware of the potential to create market volatility if they are not cautious in how they place the funds, and will endeavor to prevent this from happening.
6. They are aware of American (and others) apprehension about Chinese competition, economic power and the effects of them acquiring certain types of assets. They will most likely make more passive investments in long term growth opportunities where they see good value and not acquire entire companies, although this was not ruled out.

Continue reading Serious Money: China's $200 billion equity fund goes to work

Serious Money: China's $200 billion equity fund goes to work originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Wall Street's equity market gets back into gear this week with a solid slate, including 10 IPOs and 7 Secondaries on the docket.

Those deals tentatively scheduled to price include:

IPOs:

Mid-week

• ImaRx Therapeutics (IMRX), a 3M-Share IPO for the vascular medicine company. Maxim Group is the lead manager. Filing range: $6.50-$7.50.

Wednesday

• Dice Holdings (DHX), a 16.7M-share IPO for this web career sites company. Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan Chase are the lead managers. Filing range $11.00-$13.00.
• Encore Bancshares (EBTX), 1.97M-Share IPO for this savings & loan holding company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods is the lead manager. Filing range: $20.00-$22.00.
• Semgroup Energy Partners LP (SGLP), a 12.5M-share IPO for this oil & gas MLP. Citigroup and Merrill Lynch are the lead managers. Filing range: $19.00-$21.00.

Continue reading IPO & secondary preview -- Week of July 16, 2007

IPO & secondary preview -- Week of July 16, 2007 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 17 Jul 2007 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

How big is Blackstone's IPO? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Carlyle prepping fund for an IPO? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 13 May 2007 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.