Venture-Backed IPOs Recovering but Weak: We Compare Results for San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, & San Diego

the financial meltdown.”

The overall market for IPOs “seems to be opening up somewhat,” Jones says, “but the quality and performance of these companies is still weak.” Of the 21 venture-backed companies that went public during the first half of 2010, Jones says only five traded up since their IPO to show an increase in their share price, as of June 30. Those companies are Financial Engines (NASDAQ: [[ticker:FNGN]]) of Palo Alto, CA; ReachLocal (NASDAQ: [[ticker:RLOC]]) of Woodland Hills, CA; Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IRWD]]) of Cambridge, MA; SS&C Technhologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SSNC]]) of Windsor, CT; and Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: [[ticker:TSLA]]) of San Carlos, CA.

Jones also noted that a number of companies had to lower their share price to get the IPO out the door, which is not a good sign, and no venture-backed medical device companies have gone public since last year. “I’d call that worrisome,” he says.

Sorted by sector, the VentureDeal IPO activity report found six life science companies raised $491 million in gross proceeds; six Internet, digital media, and software companies raised a total of $612 million; and nine companies in the remaining sectors (semiconductors, wireless, mobile, financial services, and transportation) raised $799 million.

In my breakdown of the VentureDeal report for Xconomy cities, the San Francisco Bay Area had the most IPO activity (9), followed by Boston (2), Seattle (1) and San Diego (1). My city-by-city breakdown is here:

San Francisco

—Codexis (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CDXS]]) Redwood City; Biotechnology; $78 million

—QuinStreet (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QNST]]) Foster City; Digital Media; $150 million

—Financial Engines (NASDAQ: [[ticker:FNGN]]) Palo Alto; Financial Services; $127.2 million

—Meru Networks (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MERU]]) Sunnyvale; Networking; $65.8 million

—Calix Networks (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CALX]]) Petaluma; Networking; $81.9 million

—Anthera Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ANTH]]) Hayward; Pharma; $42 million

—Alpha & Omega Semiconductor (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AOSL]]) Sunnyvale; Semiconductors; $91.5M

—Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: [[ticker:TSLA]]) San Carlos; Automotive; $226 million

—Telenav (NASDAQ: [[ticker:TNAV]]) Sunnyvale; Wireless; $56 million

Boston

—Aveo Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AVEO]]) Cambridge; Pharma; $81 million

—Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IRWD]]) Cambridge; Pharma; $188 million

Seattle

—Motricity (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MOTR]]) Bellevue; Mobile; $50 million

San Diego

—MaxLinear (NYSE: [[ticker:MXL]]) Carlsbad; Semiconductors; $90 million


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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.