Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Report: IPO Markets Raise $3.72B in 2006

The market for initial public offerings garnered firms $3.72 billion in 2006, according to a report released by Dow Jones VentureOne today. Dow Jones said that there was $3.72 billion in 56 IPOs for 2006, the most IPO activity and largest total raised since 2004. 18 companies had initial public offerings in the fourth quarter, according to Dow Jones, with a total of $1.23 billion raised in the quarter. Dow Jones reports that there were 75 M&A events with a total value of $7.30 billion in Q4, with the total for the year reaching $31.18B in 404 merger and acquisitions. M&A activity closely matched 2005's 407 acquisitions. The largest deal was the $1.65B acquisition of Menlo Park-based YouTube by Mountain View-based Google, with technology companies seeing 273 transactions and $19.33B in deals; In the IPO category, health care companies dominated, with 28 deals and $1.36B in capital raised on the markets, followed by technology firms, with 20 IPOs and $1.95B raised, the largest number of technology IPOs since 2000.