Google 'may delay float plans'

AMERICA'S initial public offerings market is in shambles as company after company either postpones its floats or drastically reduces the price of the offerings.

While 17 companies announced their intention to float this week, only three are trading, leading to further concerns over the reported delay of the Google issue.

One of the week's most anticipated floats, Nanosys, which is considered a bellwether in the emerging nanotechnology arena, withdrew its anticipated $100m (£54.9m) deal, citing adverse market conditions.

To some industry veterans, the Nanosys IPO brought back memories of the heady days of the dot com boom. The company had no commercial product and no profits, having reported an $8.8m loss for the first six months of this year.

From its launch in July 2001 to 30 June this year, the company lost a total of $25.8m on revenue of $5.9m. It does, though, hold 200 patents.

'In the short run, this confirms that we're now in a bear market. The IPO window for early-stage companies is closing,' said Nanosys investor Charlie Harris, chairman and chief executive of venture capitalists Harris and Harris Group.

Sentiment is weakening swiftly. US stock markets have been waning for weeks and the Dow fell 163.48 points on Thursday dropping through the 10,000 mark to stand at 9963.03.

The trend is a warning sign for Sergey Brin and Larry Page's Google IPO, which has already attracted criticism as being overpriced. A spokesman for the company, David Krane, declined to comment on a television report, which cited an anonymous source saying the company was considering delaying its IPO until the week of 16 August. It had been thought it would come as early as next week.

While this week has seen the biggest weekly number of no-show IPOs so far, the downward spiral in the IPO market started in earnest last month.

July saw the highest monthly total of withdrawn or postponed initial public offerings in three years, according to research firm Dealogic.

During the month, 15 US-marketed IPOs totalling $2.9bn were withdrawn or delayed, the highest since 23 deals totalling $1.5bn were withdrawn in April 2001. Seven of those deals were pulled in the last week of the month as market jitters became progressively worse. That was the highest weekly total since March 2001.