Nobody Went Public Last Quarter

For the first time in thirty years, Wall Street saw a quarter come and go with no companies going public. The second quarter of 2008 proved to be a disappointing one all around.

Adding on to residual distrust from the dotcom bust, venture capitalists and investment firms are reluctant to debut their startups to the public market during such a weak climate. Memories of Vonage's embarrassing public offering two years ago don't help the situation; venture capitalists feel going public during the current market's mood would be anticlimactic.

The last time a quarter went by without an IPO, says the TechDirt's Mike Masnick adds more to the theory about why venture capitalists are reluctant to take companies public: the Sarbanes-Oxley law we have courtesy of Enron. "Going public is a lot less appealing these days thanks to the expenses required under that law," writes Masnick. "Rather than 'cleaning up' the market, it's basically made going public a toxic process, so that everyone stays private and looks for acquisition opportunities."

If the most exciting thing about the startup business these days is accounting regulations, then the industry is seeing hard times indeed.