First, the good news: There were actually four three venture-backed IPOs in the second quarter, compared to only one over the prior 13 months. But the remainder of the quarterly Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS) VentureSource report was filled with grim statistics.

The OpenTable (NSDQ: OPEN) IPO, the first venture-backed public offering since August, popped an impressive 60 percent on the first day of trading. We’ll find out over the next year if it’s the beginning of the end of the internet IPO drought (to be precise, there’s been a dearth of…

OpenTable (NSDQ: OPEN) CEO Jeff Jordan (pictured, right) probably wouldn’t have been tapped to ring the opening bell on the NASDAQ just a few years ago when the IPO market was thriving. But that’s where he was today, and his company’s stock got off to a strong start: It opened…

Why is OpenTable going public this week while most other internet companies are struggling to survive? A look through its prospectus shows how much mileage the restaurant-reservations site has gotten from having an e-commerce revenue stream at a time when the advertising market is being crushed. —Stable, Recurring Revenue: OpenTable…

OpenTable, the restaurant-reservation site, set the terms for its IPO in an SEC filing today.  OpenTable is looking to sell about three million shares (or some 15 percent of the company) for a range of between $12 and $14 a share, which values the company at about $260 million. The…

SecondMarket, founded in 2004 as Restricted Stock Partners, has launched a new online secondary market for trading shares in private companies. Among the first to call, the company told the *New York Times*: employees from Twitter, Facebook, Glam Media, LinkedIn, and Tesla Motors. The company has operated markets for illiquid…

eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) said Tuesday it would spin off its Skype calling service via an initial public offering during the first half of next year. The announcement culminates months of speculation about eBay’s plans for Skype and comes a day after the auction site announced plans to shed another non-strategic…

Al Gore’s Current Media has canceled plans for a $100 million IPO. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Current Media says it has withdrawn its registration “in light of current market conditions.” When the company initially filed for the IPO last January, it said it would use…

The much-anticipated IPO of Chinese gaming company Changyou didn’t disappoint, as investors bid the opening price to $22, a 40 percent premium over the $16 price tag placed on the shares sold to investors before trading began this morning. Trading volume was heavy, with over 3 million shares traded in…

For the second straight quarter, there wasn’t a single venture-backed IPO in Q109, and merger-and-acquisition activity was down sharply, according to a quarterly report from the National Venture Capital Association. No category, including both “communications and media” and “internet-specific” companies, was immune from the weakness. There were five “communications and…

Sohu.com’s gaming subsidiary, Changyou, is scheduled to be split from its parent company when it goes public this week in a bid to raise about $100 million. peHUB reports the IPO is an important litmus test of interest in Chinese gaming companies among U.S. investors. The last two Chinese gaming…

Yes, some companies are still brave enough to file for IPOs: Changyou.com, the online gaming division of Chinese online and mobile portal giant Sohu (NSDQ: SOHU), has filed to raise up to $120 million in an IPO. It will be traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol CYOU. It will…

Two of the rare digital media IPOs planned have done something not that rare these days: withdrawing their IPOs. NameMedia, the domain name media company headed by Kelly Conlin, previously CEO of *Primedia* and IDG, and Eyeblaster, the online rich ad format company, have both filed notices with SEC to…

Intentions for this was announced in March this year, but got scuttled, and no one thought it would re-file in this kind of market environment: Penthouse Media Group, which now goes under a more innocuous name of FriendFinder Networks, has filed its S-1, with an intent to go public and…

Not a surprise as it had been stuck in limbo for a long time: Local Matters, the Denver-based local search and directory company headed by MapQuest founder Perry Evans, has withdrawn its IPO, citing “changed circumstances regarding the securities markets”, meaning market conditions. Earlier this year it had lowered its…

Not that this is a surprise, but Synacor, the online content and application provider to the ISPs has withdrawn its IPO due to “current market conditions.” People had been asking the question about the company for a while now…it filed its S-1 in August last year, and planned to raise…

Chinese advertising firm Focus Media (NSDQ: FMCN) is primarily engaged in the out-of-home market, but it does have a fast-growing, internet business that it acquired just last year for $300 million… And now the company plans to do a spinoff of the unit (Allyes Online Media Holdings) via an IPO.…

Any entity with Liberty Media (NSDQ: LINTA) DNA takes some time to unpack, but Discovery (NSDQ: DISAB) should now get a bit simpler… Wednesday shareholders of Discovery Holdings officially approved a plan to create a singular Discovery Communications (NSDQ: DISCA) Inc, owning both Discovery and Animal Planet. The shareholder approval…

Yandex, the big Russian search engine, has delayed its much-anticipated IPO until next year, according to local reports. Earlier this year reports came out that Yandex was planning a US IPO and will seek to raise $1.5-$2 billion, at a total valuation of $5 billion. For 2007 Yandex’s revenue was…