Category Archives: The IPO Buzz

The IPO Buzz: IPOs Love Democrats

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.
There’s no question that IPOs love Democratic presidents. Over the last four decades, the new-issue traffic runs 34 percent higher than “average” when a Democratic president resides in the White House and 15 percent below “average” when the GOP occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
November 8, 2008 Read More

The IPO Buzz: When Numbers Talk

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.
On Wall Street, numbers do the talking. In October, some significant numbers popped up that could tell investors what might be going on behind the scenes of one of the worst bear markets in recent memory. The Dow Jones industrial average was in the spotlight, with a few numbers that could serve as signals about what might happen next.

November 2, 2008 Read More

The IPO Buzz: Bears Gone Wild

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.  
October 26, 2008 Read More

The IPO Buzz: Up in Smoke

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.
October 20, 2008 Read More

The IPO Buzz: History – A Crash Course

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.
October 12, 2008 Read More

The IPO Buzz: Waiting for Daylight

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.
 
October 5, 2008 Read More

The IPO Buzz: Cashing In On Chaos

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.
September 28, 2008 Read More

The IPO Buzz: Riding Out the Storm

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again, as the saying goes. And that is exactly what bankers are planning on for this week’s IPO calendar. Last week’s only deal, Fluidigm, didn’t get out the door –- due to a financial storm that raged beyond anyone’s control. (Washington’s now weighing a $700 billion bailout to take bad mortgage debt off banks’ hands, after the feds rescued AIG, let Lehman Brothers file for bankruptcy, and all but held the shotgun so Merrill Lynch would get hitched to Bank of America.)
September 21, 2008 Read More

The IPO Buzz: A Fluid Situation

Last week’s financial stocks fell into a burning ring of fire and went down, down, down. And who knows what this week will bring? Nevertheless, bankers plan to brave the storm and price an IPO. The professionals don’t expect a fiery opening-day moonshot.
September 14, 2008 Read More

The IPO Buzz: Fall’s Opening Act

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Just as Broadway’s biggest fans look forward to new plays in the fall, investors watch for the IPO market to come back to life a couple of weeks after Labor Day. This year’s rocky stock market made that reawakening a more dubious proposition until Friday morning, when Wall Street got a pleasant surprise: Fluidigm filed an amendment with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its pending IPO. The company set expected pricing terms. And Morgan Stanley, its investment banker, added the deal to the IPO calendar.     

September 7, 2008 Read More