Twenty-seven venture-backed initial public offerings (IPOs) raised $4.4 billion during the fourth quarter of 2014.
It represents an 18% increase, by number of offerings, from the third quarter and a 68% increase, by dollars, compared to the previous quarter, according to the Exit Poll report by Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).
16 of the 27 offerings during the quarter were life sciences IPOs representing 59% of total listings.
By location, 23 of the quarter’s 27 IPOs were from U.S.-based companies. Two offerings came from China-based companies during the fourth quarter including Beijing Momo Technology Co (MOMO) which raised $216.0m on the NASDAQ stock exchange on December 10th. In the largest IPO of the quarter, LendingClub Corp (LC), a San Francisco, California-based online marketplace connecting borrowers and investors, raised $1.0 billion and
began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on December 10th. The company is currently trading 58 percent above its $15 offering price.
During 2014, 115 venture-backed companies went public in the United States raising $15.3 billion, a 38% increase
compared to full year 2013. 59 offerings were related to biotechnology.
For the fourth quarter of 2014, 95 venture-backed M&A deals were reported, 29 of which had an aggregate deal value of $26.4 billion bolstered by Facebook’s $19.5 billion purchase of Whatsapp Inc. (combined with its $1.9 billion acquisition of Oculus VR Inc in July). The information technology sector led the venture-backed M&A landscape with 80 of the 95 deals of the quarter and had a disclosed total dollar value of $23.7 billion. Within this sector, Computer Software and Services and Internet Specific deals accounted for the bulk of the targets with 45 and 24 transactions, respectively, across these sector subsets.
455 acquisitions of venture-backed companies took place during the year.
FinSMEs
07/01/2015