IPO window pain: Some issues falling through - San Francisco Business Times:

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If it makes it out of the IPO window this the semiconductor company will be only thethirc venture-backed tech company in Silicon Valley to do so and one of just 13 acrosds the nation. The thirdf quarter showed improvements in the amountr ofmoney venture-backed IT companies raised in their initial public offerings. But public market investor s are still giving IPOs a mixed Depending on whoyou ask, the IPO market is eithet in the tank or rosy with health. Taking the latterf view is DowJones VentureOne, the San Francisco researchn company that collects data on the venture capita industry.
The organization points out that the thirx quarter marked someencouraging milestones: The five venture-backe d tech companies that went public raised a median of $95.3 the highest median since 2003, while in aggregatr they pulled in $547.6 million, up 68 percent from a year ago. The thirs quarter was also the first since the second quarte of 2003 when there were more techthan health-carse IPOs. Jessica Canning, senior research manager at VentureOne, took an upbeag view of the data: The IPO marketg is "the strongest it's been since she said.
"We finally turned the corner and the IPO market is beginniny to open up for IT She added that between 2001 and only 2004 had more than 11 tech There were 15in 2004. Sharing a positivw outlook is Samuel Wilson, a senior research analyst with of San who pointed to some of the successful IPOs in 2006 as a sign that the climatwe for tech companiesis healthy. , a San Franciscop company that makes appliances for wide area for instance, priced at the high end of its rangre at $9.75, raised $85 milliomn in September and, as of early October, boasted a share price of more than $19, he It's market capitalization is over $1 billion now.
At the time of its Riverbed was posting losses but hada one-year saled growth rate of 795 percent. "Th e market is incredibly receptive," Wilso said. "Its [share price] shot up 100 percent in less thana month." Likewise, Oceanport, N.J.-basexd , a data management software company, also priced at the high end of its rangew at $14.50 a share and raises $161 million in September, makingt it the biggest IPO of the Since going public, it traded as high as $19.96 a share. Unlike CommVault is profitable butits one-yeaf sales growth rate was slower -- 32.
5 Wilson said this year's tech IPOs show that if a companyu is posting losses, it's growth rate bettef be impressive. Conversely, if it's a slower growth rate probably won't hurt its But while there were a number of solir debutsin 2006, there were some poor ones as Of the 13 venture-backed IT IPOs in at least four have been trading beloa their offer prices -- some by quite a bit. Among them are Redwood City's , an online digitak photo services and productscompany that, despite profitabilitu and 54 percent annual salesd growth, dipped as low as $12.32 on Oct. 6, down from an offerintg price of $15.
Others includew , a New Jerseu Internet phone company, down 58 percengt since its IPO, and , a Pennsylvaniaw traffic data company whose shares have plummeted 60 percent sinceits IPO. "It'sx still chilly," said Brenon Daly, a financial analystt with the451 Group, who noteed that those with a differing view are tryiny "to will the market to come back." He notes that Sevij Rosen, a venture capital firm with offices in Palo Alto, recentlt cited a poor exit environmen as one of the reasons why it was returninfg up to $300 milliom in commitments for its tenth venture fund.
In addition, a numbef of tech companies have withdrawbn IPOsthis year, he said, whil e companies like and ushered in two of the biggest tech buyoutsw in history because they felt undervalued on the publivc markets. "It's tough to be a start-up," Daly "It's going to continue to be a selectivesIPO market."