Category Archives: The IPO Buzz

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Fashion Week’s curtain went up in New York City last Thursday with all the sparkle and glitter one can imagine. Not to be outdone, Wall Street started parading IPOs down its runway. Companies began filing S-1/A amendments setting proposed pricing terms, and most found their way onto a then-vacant IPO calendar. Wall Street’s fall season is shaping up to be “active.”

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

If you blinked twice on Friday, you might have missed September’s first IPO.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Found inside every IPO’s prospectus is the sub-title “Lock-up Agreements.” Insiders agree not to sell any of their holdings for a period of normally 180 days. It’s there to discourage the “pump-and-dump” schemes that were popular before the Securities Act of 1933 went into effect. This clause is found in the Rosetta Stone (NYSE: RST) prospectus.

 

The IPO welcome mat gets rolled up this week, but it’s not “due to market conditions.” It’s seasonal. We are moving into the last two weeks of summer. That’s when the new-issue players close shop and head off to exotic places with 5-Star accommodations — or maybe Brighton Beach this year.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

When you hear Nashville, the Grand Ole Opry comes to mind. But that’s not the only thriving business in that part of Tennessee. This week’s IPO calendar features two Nashville-based companies with healthcare-related businesses: Cumberland Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CPIX – proposed) and Emdeon (NYSE: EM – proposed).

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Investment bankers will reach across the Pacific Ocean this week and bring Wall Street two Asian companies that plan to go public in the United States. The deals are Avago Technologies (NASDAQ: AVGO – proposed) and CDC Software (NASDAQ: CDCS – proposed).

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Depending upon which IPO service you follow, you’ll find either two or three deals on this week’s new-issues calendar. Two are newly minted companies while the other has been publicly traded since October 2005.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

The yellow brick road to the Land of IPOs starts at the filing window of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Last week was the busiest in 11 months. The funny thing was that it wasn’t just munchkins or bumper cars going down that yellow brick road. Weaving in and out of traffic: A bull was spotted. The NASDAQ Composite Index closed at a high for 2009 on Friday.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Every now and then a strange creature will wiggle its way onto somebody’s IPO calendar. It really isn’t your day-to-day initial public offering; it’s known by different names. This week’s calendar has one such deal. It is called a bank conversion and it’s offered on a “best effort” basis.

 

By: John E. Fitzgibbon, Jr.

Traditionally the IPO market closes down for the July 4^th holiday and 2009 was no different. Even though this year’s new-issue traffic has been slow with just slightly over a dozen deals, there is an emerging trend. Last week’s offering confirmed it: Technology is “in.”