The Small IPO

There have been any number of economic analyses demonstrating that the public markets remain inhospitable to smaller IPOs and blog posts (many, ours) lamenting the absence of smaller IPOs.  Recently, in preparing for a conference, we came across a number of papers that raise the question as to whether we've been lamenting something that no longer makes sense and we should, instead, be focused on rethinking the rubric for liquidity opportunities for smaller companies.  In particular, I read with interest a paper titled, The Disappearing Small IPO and the Lifecycle of the Small Firm, written by Steven Davidoff Solomon and Paul Rose.  This appears to be the first study of small IPOs and reviews data from approximately 3,000 IPOs completed from 1996 to 2012.  The study finds that the smaller companies that went public during this time period had a shorter life as a public company (compared to larger market cap companies that undertook an IPO during the same time period).