Facebook disaster scaring off other IPOs

Lowest number of global IPOs since 2009; 13 have already canceled plans to go public

As Facebook’s IPO approached, it appeared that other online companies would be using Facebook’s momentum to cash in on all the money that was sure to start flowing. There was real excitment in the air over the possiblities.

Things did not go exactly as planned. Facebook’s stock opened weaker than expected, finishing only 37 cents above IPO price and since then has only gotten worse hitting 24% below its IPO price on Tuesday. The value of the company has seen its value go from $104 billion to $79 billion, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw his stake in the company go from $19.1 billion to $14.5 billion. 

Facebook stock did rebound a bit on Thursday, going up 5% to $29.60, but it is still well below the IPO price of $38. 

Zuckerberg is now off the top 40 richest persons list, less than a month after entering the list at numner 36. 

Facebook stock has been doing so badly, in fact, that it has dragged the entire IPO market down with it, and scared off other potential IPOs.

One company that was reportedly going to try to ride the Facebook coattails was online travel booking website Kayak, which planned on raising $150 million. Now, reports are coming out that the company is shelving that plan in the wake of the Facebook fiasco.

And it's not the only one.

Bloomberg reported on Thursday that its IPO Index, which tracks companies for a year after they go public, declined by 15% this past month. That is the same decline the Index saw during the collapse of Lehman Brothers in October 2008, which many cite as the beginning of the current recession.

Facebook, the report says, had the worst week of any of the top 30 IPOs on the index since last year.

On top of that, at least 13 IPOs have been postponed since Facebook went public, including Kayak. The number of IPOs since April has been 192 globally, which is the worst since the 177 in the third quarter of 2009.

Other companies that have withdrawn their IPOs are Tria Beauty, Corsair Components, CyOptics.Graff Diamonds, Formula One, and Vkontakte, the largest social media website in Russia.

Of course, not all of this is Facebook’s fault. There is a major debt crisis going on in Europe, which some say could drag the entire world economy back into recession. The weak performance of the stock that many thought was going to be boon for Wall Street certainly hasn’t helped, especially on a psychological level for other companies now weary of going public.

(Image source: fanpop.com)