Of IPOs, pricing, and such...

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The Economist has a great cover story this week on the fading sheen of public companies. The stat below stood out to me.

The number of public companies has fallen dramatically over the past decade—by 38% in America since 1997 and 48% in Britain. The number of initial public offerings (IPOs) in America has declined from an average of 311 a year in 1980-2000 to 99 a year in 2001-11.

Particularly as I discussed the mechanics and laws of the IPOs last night with my wife (in the context of the supposed Morgan Stanley mangling of the Facebook IPO), the incredible inefficiency of the entire IPO and stock pricing process became so clear to me - it made me appreciate the Google IPO auction even more.


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