Mass. missing the Web IPO wave

BOSTON – Massachusetts is missing out on recent investor enthusiasm for Internet-based companies as companies such as LinkedIn Corp. and Pandora Media Inc. raised triple-digit million dollar initial public offerings, The Boston Globe reported Tuesday.
According to a report by Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association, there were 36 venture-backed IPOs in the first six months of 2011, up 33 percent when compared with the first half of 2010.
Twenty-two of those IPOs occurred in the second quarter, totaling $5.5 billion, of which half were Internet-based businesses.
In Massachusetts, there were two venture-backed IPOs in the first half of the year: Waltham-based medical diagnostics company BG Medicine Inc. and Cambridge-based Zipcar, which raised a combined total of $209 million.
There were three IPOs in all of 2010, the newspaper said, noting: “That is down from the 2007 peak, when 18 Massachusetts-based IPOs raised $1.4 billion, the most since 2000.”
Massachusetts is “missing the IPO wave” because it has few Internet companies, said Paul Maeder, chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, to The Boston Globe.
If the string of national IPOs goes well, the Bay State companies stand to benefit from increased investor confidence, he added, but could also be adversely affected if there is a frenzy of overvalued public offerings.
Nevertheless, two Massachusetts companies have announced plans for IPOs: Dunkin’ Brands Group said it expects to raise $500 million and Quincy-based biofuel company Myriant said it’s planning a $125 million IPO.