Why Are They Filing for IPOs?
For years, part of my morning newshounding has been to check www.SEC.gov for any new S-1 or RW filings. Basically looking for new IPO filings or withdrawals.Of late, however, I've only been searching for withdrawals, since new IPO filings seem to have gone the way of the dinosaur (or, perhaps, the way of completed IPOs). In fact, the last IPO filing from a VC-backed or PE-backed company had been Bridgepoint Education on December 22, 2008. Before that, you had to skip November to find a few October strays. But could all that be changing? We've had two new filings since last Wednesday: One for Medidata Solutions, a VC-backed provider of electronic data capture and data management software for clinical researchers; and one for OpenTable, a VC-backed operator of an online network for restaurant reservations (which I happen to use, and love). It's not exactly a flood, but relatively speaking...
