随着Facebook不断增加IPO价格，扩大融资规模，IPO市场的其他选手也都纷纷暂时推迟计划。根据彭博通讯社的数据表明。在过去的三个月里，宣布推出或者推迟IPO计划的公司数量上升了许多。自从今年2月份以来，大约有29家公司都暂时搁置了IPO活动，同比去年增长了38%。
科技界巨头的IPO是不是挤压了资本市场，导致投资规模被压缩？也许是这样的，尽管从表面上看来导致这种情况产生的也许是不景气的股市。没有人想要在市场普遍低迷的环境下进行IPO。自从4月初，标普500指数下降了5%，各个公司都开始推迟IPO计划，大部分都宣称“市场环境不景气”。
不仅有许多公司推迟了IPO活动，更有公司已经完全停止了这项活动。在过去的3个月里，只有121家公司宣布IPO活动，同比去年下降了34%。包裹Facebook，在过去几周中只安排了九次IPO活动。
这一切都发生的太快了。在4月初，市场还没有冷却之前，我们还报道说IPO活动在今年将迎来一次小高峰。根据PricewaterhouseCoopers的调查，2012年第一季度是2007年以来，IPO总数最多的季度。导致这种情况可能是长期以来积压的市场需求突然爆发，以及想趁着市场正热加入其中的愿望。标普500在第一季度宣布了自1998年以来的最好业绩，从1月份到3月份增长了11%。
但这也并不意味着这些暂时被搁置的计划将永久消失。推迟IPO是很正常的事情，只要法律申请已经递交上去，在市场反热的时候再次进行IPO时相对容易一些。如果市场恢复了，是这样的。希腊问题，中国增长速度放缓，美国的财政期限问题都是市场恢复过程中不可忽视的阻力。也许这些公司在有能力进行IPO的时候自然就会如期进行。
As Facebook increases the size and price range of its initial public offering, the rest of the IPO market is starting to sputter. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, there’s been an uptick in the number of companies that have either withdrawn or postponed their IPO in the past three months. Since mid-February, 29 IPOs have been shelved, a 38 percent increase over the same period last year.
Is the mother of all tech IPOs sucking oxygen out of the capital markets and crowding out investment? Possibly, though the more likely culprit appears to be the sagging stock market. No one wants to make their public debut amid falling prices. As the S&P 500 has shed 6 percent since early April, companies of all stripes have put the brakes on plans to go public, with most of them citing “adverse market conditions.”
Not only are more IPOs getting pulled, fewer appear to be in the works. Over the past three months, just 121 IPOs have been announced, down 34 percent from the same period last year. Including Facebook, just nine IPOs are scheduled over the next few weeks.
This all happened fairly fast. In early April, before the markets started to cool, we wrote about how IPOs were seeing a nice little boom so far this year. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the first quarter of 2012 saw the highest first-quarter IPO volume since 2007. That was likely fueled by some pent-up demand and also a desire to hit the market while it was hot. The S&P 500 posted its best first quarter since the halcyon days of 1998, rising nearly 11 percent from January through March.
This doesn’t mean these plans to go public are gone for good. Postponing an IPO is fairly common, and as long as the groundwork of regulatory filings has been laid, relaunching an offering once markets recover can be relatively easy. If markets recover, that is. Trouble in Greece, a slowdown in China, and the looming fiscal cliff in the U.S. pose significant headwinds. Maybe those companies should go public while they can.
