Wall Street Beat: After Facebook fiasco, don't write off tech IPOs

25.05.2012
The Facebook IPO may have been a fiasco, but don't put the nail in the coffin just yet for other tech offerings this year.

The success or failure of tech company IPOs will depend on market conditions, not fallout from Facebook, analysts say.

The Facebook IPO was in many ways an anomalous event, a public offering of one of the most-hyped companies ever, taking place against market headwinds. The events specific to the whole mess -- which ultimately, successfully brought in US$16 billion for Facebook -- don't by themselves mean that a tech bubble has been burst.

"An Internet bubble came and went in one day," said John Fitzgibbon, who runs .

"One thing got overlooked in all the hysteria," Fitzgibbon said. "The stock market was not in great shape." On the eve of the IPO, the Nasdaq had come down from earlier highs of the year, and they are still down. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which closed Friday at 2837.53, down by 1.85, is now about 10 percent off previous highs.

Problems with sovereign debt in Europe, fears that Greece will default and pull out of the euro, and mixed economic reports in the U.S. have put a damper on stocks lately.