How Internet IPOs Performed in 2012

This was a mixed year for tech IPOs, but overall, the Internet companies who went public in 2012 fared better than those who did in 2011.

Some 59% of the Internet companies who went public this year were trading above their IPO price as of midday Wednesday and 47% were trading above the price of their first actual trade, according to data compiled for Mashable by Kevin Pleines, an analyst with Birinyi Associates. By comparison, 42% of the Internet companies who went public last year were trading above their IPO price by the end of 2011 and just 14% were trading above the price of their first trade.

That may come as somewhat a surprise considering all the negative press surrounding the Facebook IPO, but as Pleines explains, Facebook's troubles arguably overshadowed the success of many other tech companies this year. "Facebook received the bulk of the press in the first half of the year, first on their valuation then the subsequent poor performance," Pleines said. "Many of the other internet companies flew under the radar."

What's more, Pleines says that Facebook's disastrous IPO may have caused other tech companies to rethink the timing and valuation of their own IPOs, which may have prevented similar Internet IPO disasters. In fact, 10 Internet companies went public before Facebook did in May, but only six went public afterwards.

All in all, there were two fewer Internet IPOs this year than last year. The total value of Internet IPOs this year was more than double that of 2011, but the vast majority of that was Facebook. If you take Facebook out of the equation, the total value of the Internet IPOs this year was actually 63% lower than last year, suggesting that this was a less eventful year for tech IPOs than 2011.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, Andrew Feinberg.