2006: The Year of the IPO?

The current year is now a lock to surpass 2005's IPO traffic. The data shows that in 2005 there were 235 U.S. IPOs that raised $40 billion. As of last Friday, the 2006 figures were 227 IPOs and $43.7-billion. With 18 more deals already priced, we're going to beat 2005 on both IPO number and dollar volume.

Isilon Systems (ISLN) IPO performance last Friday will bring more heat to the IPO market in 2007, driving my IPO thesis even further. It has bankers and VCs buzzing. Best opening performance of a tech IPO since the bubble, billion-dollar market cap, 77% first-day gain, etc. etc.

Isilon Systems skyrocketed in its stock market debut Friday, with shares rising 77 percent in the best opening performance for a technology IPO in more than six years.

The Seattle digital storage company took off with a bang from the moment it started trading, with an opening price of $25 per share. It peaked at $27.45 -- more than double the $13 offering price -- before settling down around $23 per share for most of the day. It closed at $23.10, giving the money-losing company a market value of $1.4 billion.