Business Blog: Hoover’s Business Insight Zone

Or at least yesterday was a solid opening day for IPOs. Dig this, taken hot off the presses (so to speak) from the IPO Performance page of our very own IPO Central:

Data Domain, Inc.
Priced at $13.00
Opened at $20.00
Closed at $24.95

Spectra Energy Partners, LP
Priced at $22.00
Opened at $26.50
Closed at $28.65

Spreadtrum Communications, Inc.
Priced at $14.00
Opened at $14.20
Closed at $15.95

comScore, Inc.
Priced at $16.50
Opened at $22.00
Closed at $23.47

The only downer of the day was AuthenTec, Inc.:
Priced at $11.00
Opened at $11.00
Closed at $10.00

Meanwhile, what about that wee little $4 billion IPO from last week? Well, when we were on the CNBC together last Friday, Ken Fisher and I agreed that Blackstone’s shares — ahem, “common units” — looked pricey. (Hint: more people pay attention to Ken’s opinion than mine.) They were trading around $35.50 at the time, so it looks like we were right: as I write this, Blackstone is trading a few cents above $30, which leads to speculation about what path the shares will take from here.

Me? I don’t know. I wouldn’t bet against Steve Schwarzman . . . but Schwarzman seems to think that now (or last Friday, anyway) was the right time to command a top premium for a slice of Blackstone. I’d assume that he’s right, and that the company is going to settle out at a lower valuation for a little while before it (maybe) climbs again.