While the IPO market remains quiet at the start of the year, this presents a nice opportunity to review more data about about last year’s activity. Much has been made about the tech industry, how many of its larger IPOs seem to have fumbled and whether or not we’re in another dot-com bubble (and with Facebook’s impending filing this topic becomes even more attractive). Despite questions about tech’s performance and whether they were viable businesses, were they able to use the IPO market as a means to raise capital? The data is interesting:
The tech industry–including companies that touch other industries but focus on the Internet or other social themes as a means for delivery–actually lead the IPO market last year, raising more than $8 billion combined. The next closest industries, energy and health care, have risen to the top because of one very large company (Kinder Morgan and HCA respectively). On the other hand, capital raised in the tech sector comprised several large companies and quite a number of smaller ones as well.
Another observation worth noting is technology seems to raise capital in bursts. For the first few months of the year, technology is barely visible before getting a huge spike in May and June thanks to Internet and social companies Yandex, LinkedIn and Renren. Activity quiets down again (largely driven by the debt-ceiling debate and Eurozone debt crisis) before picking up at the end of the year with Groupon and Zynga. Perhaps a viable study into IPO windows.
Will 2012 follow a similar pattern? Facebook is rumored to go public in May, not unlike many tech companies of the past year.
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