打算上市的科技公司都到哪去了
The Nasdaq closed above 5,000 today, marking its first visit to that hallowed threshold since the halcyon days of 2000. So where are all the tech IPOs?
納斯達克指數週一收於5000多點，這是自2000年科技泡沫破滅後納指首次衝上這一峯值。在一片繁華似錦中，怎麼不見科技公司IPO的身影？So far this year, only one tech company has gone public. That would be cloud storage company Box Inc., which raised $175 million near the end of January. After that, bupkis.
自年初迄今，新上市的科技公司只有一家，那就是雲存儲服務供應商Box。該公司1月底登陸股市，融資1.75億美元。隨後，就是一片沉寂。
To be sure, there have been IPOs. Not nearly as many as we saw during the first two months of 2014 — 29 vs. 41 — but still a bunch of offerings from companies in such sectors as biotech and real estate. Tech, however, has been conspicuously absent.
當然，新股IPO一直沒有間斷。今年前兩個月，美股共完成29宗IPO，雖然沒有去年同期的41宗那樣多，但其中不乏來自生物科技行業和房地產行業的公司身影。不過，科技公司明顯缺席。
There is no definitive reason for the vacancy, but the most likely culprits are late-stage investors. Not just the traditional players like Institutional Venture Partners and Insight Venture Partners, but all of the hedge fund and mutual fund tourists that are increasingly mining the private markets for a bit of extra yield (or perhaps they’re bored — flip a coin). With plenty of private capital available, why go public? Isn’t it better to be known as a “$20 billion company” when there aren’t any pesky stock trades that could turn you into a “$15 billion company” (or less) in an afternoon?
出現這種空缺的原因並不明確，但最有可能要歸結到晚期投資者身上。不僅是傳統的像Institutional Venture Partners和Insight Venture Partners這樣的風投公司在深挖私募市場，就連各類對衝基金和共同基金也越來越多地涌入這個市場，以獲取一丁點額外收益（也可能是因爲他們太無聊了，拋硬幣決定的）。在私募資金充足的情況下，公司爲什麼要上市呢？當一家“200億美元公司”不是更好嗎？既沒有討厭的股票買賣，也不會因此在一下午就變成一家“150億美元公司”（甚至更慘）。The irony is that this new flood of capital is being made possible by JOBS Act legislation that was, in part, designed to encourage more startups to go public.
具有諷刺意味的是，引發新一輪私募投資潮的是《創業企業融資法案》（JOBS ACT），而制定該法案的初衷之一卻是鼓勵更多初創型企業上市。In the short-term, this doesn’t matter to anyone but the bankers and stock exchanges that are being momentarily deprived of new fees. In the long-term, however, it means that retail investors won’t get to participate in the massive growth that new tech issuers used to experience in the months and years after listing.
短期內，除了手續費收入暫時斷流的投行人士和股票交易所外，科技公司不願上市的現象對其他人沒有任何影響。但長期來看，這種情況意味着散戶投資者不能再像以前那樣，在科技公司上市後的幾個月乃至幾年裏分享其迅猛增長所帶來的收益。So if you happen to see a tech IPO anytime soon, be sure to pay attention. It might be a while before another one comes around.
因此，如果大家在短時間內湊巧碰到了某家科技公司的上市，請務必予以關注。在下一宗科技公司IPO出現之前，我們或許要等上一段時間了。
