The Nasdaq closed above 5,000 today, marking its first visit to that hallowed threshold since the halcyon days of 2000. So where are all the tech IPOs?
So far this year, only one tech company has gone public. That would be cloud storage company Box Inc. (BOX), which raised $175 million near the end of January. After that, bupkis.
To be sure, there have been IPOs. Not nearly as many as we saw during the first two months of 2014 — 29 vs. 41 — but still a bunch of offerings from companies in such sectors as biotech and real estate. Tech, however, has been conspicuously absent.
There is no definitive reason for the vacancy, but the most likely culprits are late-stage investors. Not just the traditional players like Institutional Venture Partners and Insight Venture Partners, but all of the hedge fund and mutual fund tourists that are increasingly mining the private markets for a bit of extra yield (or perhaps they’re bored — flip a coin). With plenty of private capital available, why go public? Isn’t it better to be known as a “$20 billion company” when there aren’t any pesky stock trades that could turn you into a “$15 billion company” (or less) in an afternoon?
The irony is that this new flood of capital is being made possible by JOBS Act legislation that was, in part, designed to encourage more startups to go public.
In the short-term, this doesn’t matter to anyone but the bankers and stock exchanges that are being momentarily deprived of new fees. In the long-term, however, it means that retail investors won’t get to participate in the massive growth that new tech issuers used to experience in the months and years after listing.
So if you happen to see a tech IPO anytime soon, be sure to pay attention. It might be a while before another one comes around.
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