Category Archives: The IPO Buzz

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

During the first two weeks of December, bankers traditionally ride through the valley of IPOs — deals to the right of them, deals to the left of them and deals in front of them — but not this year, due to market conditions.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

The first IPO to be priced in 104 days crashed on take-off. It should have come as no surprise if one had been reading the early warning signs -– an old axiom dating back decades — “cut a deal, cancel my order!”

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

There was a glimmer of hope for the IPO market on Monday when three companies filed to go public, the first filings since late September, and the calendar boasted an IPO for the week of November 17, the first since mid-August.

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

On Friday, the bears went wild. The futures were down the limit in pre-opening trading and Wall Street braced itself for a bone-crushing freefall when the markets opened. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) tumbled about 512 points in early morning trading and then recovered. Nevertheless, it did close at 8,378.95, a new closing low for the year, but the day did not completely belong to the bears. The DJIA failed to hit an intraday yearly low and trading was a “normal,” by recent standards, volume of 6.55 billion shares.  

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

On Monday, Oct. 6, CapitalSource Healthcare REIT set proposed pricing terms for its IPO and its bankers announced its pricing date – Wednesday evening, Oct. 15 – so far, so good. On Oct. 15, the deal was postponed “due to market conditions.” And another dream of being the fall’s first IPO went up in smoke.

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Every now and then, we are blessed – or cursed – with historical financial events, such as the stock market’s current meltdown. A good many of us witnessed the October 1987 crash and there are a few still around who can speak first-hand of October 1929. You know something? Octobers haven’t been very good for the stock market.

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

On Friday, Oct. 3, 2008, the Nasdaq Composite Index closed DOWN 31.9 percent from its previous closing high. Ten years ago, on Oct. 8, 1998, the Nasdaq Composite closed DOWN 29.5 percent from its previous closing high. In each case, the IPO market had dried up. By mid-November 1998, IPOs staged a comeback. In today’s market, it’s a case of waiting for daylight.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Bailouts and politics sent stock prices on a wild ride on Wall Street this past week. Not surprisingly, the IPO calendar dried up. Surprisingly, the secondary calendar exploded.