IPO Outlook: Googly Eyed in 2004

The IPO market should build on its current momentum in 2004, after a pickup in pricings at the end of this year and with one of the most widely anticipated offerings in a decade on the horizon in Google. Despite all that, however, it remains too early to declare a full-blown turnaround in the new-issues market.

While deal-trackers anticipate that more than 100 new companies will come to market next year -- the first time since 2000 -- that is still significantly below the 500-plus deal watermark set in the heady days of 1999. Perhaps more importantly, IPOs these days have stiffer competition for investors' dollars.

"Filings have been on the rise compared to the anemic first-half showing, [but] I think that competition from exchange-traded funds, index funds and the existing supply of stock will limit the advance of issuance," said Richard Peterson, an analyst at Thomson Financial. ...