Initial Public Offering (IPO) can be defined as the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. This usually is issued by smaller companies seeking money and capital to expand. However, large companies have now invested their time in IPOs as well.
This article intends to examine the top 10 IPOs of the last 10 years From Google to Zynga to Facebook, who will make it to # 1?
1. Facebook
Facebook filed for an initial public offering in February of 2012. This could put the social network at a value between $75 billion and $100 billion. It may also be considered one of the biggest U.S. stock-market debuts of all time because of this.
The company hopes to raise $10 billion and has given potential buyers their first look at the financials. Financials showed that Facebook produced a $1 billion profit last year from $3.71 billion in revenues. 85% of those revenues come from advertisement, with the rest from social gaming and other fees.
However, there is only one way to define Facebook and that is with a cliché called “social Bazaar” where friends chitchat, play games and can exchange 250 million photos a day.
2. Google
As an American multinational corporation, the internet and software company specializes in internet search, cloud computing and advertising technologies. The company began as an incorporated company in September 4, 1998. Its initial public offering followed in August of 2004. Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt agreed to work for Google for 20 years.
In its public offerings, the company intended to distribute 19,605,052 shares at a price $85 each. They were sold at a unique online auction using a system built by Morgan Stanley and Credi Suisse.
The shares hit $700 after the 2007 IPOs. Strong sales and earnings were the causes of the surge.
3. Alibaba
This is the largest business to business platform in China. It was founded by Jack Ma and 18 others in 1999. It now claims to have 65 million registered users in more than 240 countries as of March of 2011.
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal both reported on the IPO for the company. The offering was significant as it was the biggest by any Chinese company, raising approximately $2 billion. Yahoo owns 39% of the company and offered to buy 10% of the available shares.
4. Yandex
Yandex is Russia’s largest internet search engine and a leading internet and technology company. Their goal is to provide easy access to information available online and to answer any questions Russian speaking users could have. They furthermore rely on their in-depth understanding of the Russian language, culture and internet market in order to give users a sophisticated web search and information retrieval services.
In May of 2011, the company filed for an IPO on NASDAQ under YNDX at $20 to $22 per share. The company hopes to raise $1.2 billion from the sale of 15, 400, 000 shares.
5. ShandaGame
Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd. is a Chinese operator of online games and book publisher. It is based in Shanghai and was established in December of 1999. In 2006, the company announced 460 registered accounts and the average of 1.2 million players at any given time. It was listed on NASDAQ exchange, raising $151.9 USD.
In 2009, the company began offering IPOs. The company was able to raise $1 billion in the richest U.S. Stock Market debut in 2009. Shanda was also able to sell more than 13 million American Depositary Shares. However, by September of the same year the company began to slip by 14%.
6. Zynga
Zynga is a social network game development company located San Francisco. The company specializes in developing browser-based games. As of February 2012, it has 240 million monthly active users. You may recognize some of the games from Facebook, including CityVille, Farmville and CafeWorld.
The company began offering IPOs in December of 2011. 100 million shares were offered at $10 each. The deal size was $1 billion and the valuation was $8.3 billion. Performance has not been good as the first day did not see any rise, but a loss of 5%. Performance since IPO has also been optimal at 44.8%.
7. Giant
Giant develops internet security products, including pop-up inspector, spam inspector and anti-spyware software. Its head office is located in New York and also has offices in Chicago and Atlanta. In 2004, Microsoft took over the company and many of the products have now been integrated into Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Hotmail etc.
The company went public in October of 2007 with a deal size of $887 million. The valuation of shares was $3.3 billion and each share was offered at $15.50. There was a slight raise the first day by 17.6%, but since then has not been doing well with performance at -71.9%.
8. Renren
Renren is a Chinese social network similar to Facebook. In April 2011 the company announced that it has a total of 31 million active users a month. The company was formerly known as Xiaonei which began in December of 2005 by a University of Delaware graduate.
The company went public in May of 2011 with a deal size of $743 million. The valuation of shares was $4 billion and each share was offered at $14. There was a slight raise the first day by 28.6%, but since then has not been doing well with the performance at 60.9%
9. Groupon
This is where you can find the best deals of the day featuring discounts and gift certificates for just about everything. It was first launched in November of 2008 and its first market was Chicago, Boston, New York and Toronto. As of October 2010, it has more than 150 markets in North America and 1000 markets in Europe, Asia and South America. The users total 35 million.
The company went public in November of 2011 with a deal size of $700 million. The valuation of shares was $4 billion and each share was offered at $14. There was a slight raise the first day by 28.6%, but since then has not been doing well with performance at 60.9%
10. LinkedIn
This is a business related social networking site founded in December of 2002 and was first launched in May of 2003. Its purpose mainly serves to professionally network the employment sector. It employs more than 135 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories.
The company went public in May of 2011 with a deal size of $353 million. The valuation of shares was $4 billion and each share was offered at $45. There was a slight raise the first day by 109.4%, but since then has been doing well with performance at 99.3%.
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