IPOScoop's  Instablog

October's IPO calendar is building from last month's traffic. September 2012 generated eight IPOs, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings. By Friday's close, Sept. 28, the calendar already had 15 IPOs lined up for this month. It might be worth noting that the August, September and October 2011 new-issues calendars produced only seven offerings.

The answer to this turnaround is found in the underlying stock market, as measured by the Nasdaq Composite Index. The stock market collapsed in mid-2011.

From the market's closing high set on April 29, 2011, at 2,873.54, the Nasdaq fell 18.7 percent to 2,335.83, its year's closing low on Oct. 3. That'll kill an IPO market.

Fast forward to 2012: The stock market surged.

From the market's recent closing low set on June 1, 2012, at 2,747.48, the Nasdaq gained 13.4 percent to 3,116.23, its close on Sept. 28. That's a breeding ground for an IPO calendar.

This week's calendar has eight IPOs looking to raise about $1.2 billion. Seven are new faces, and the other (GlobeImmune - GBIM - prospectus) from the past few weeks. Next week, Oct. 8, the calendar has six offerings looking to raise about $1.3 billion, and there is one other in the wings (Taylor & Martin Group - TMG - prospectus) waiting for a pricing date.

On the "Most Wanted" List

FleetMatics Group (FLTX - prospectus) and LifeLock (LOCK - prospectus) are reportedly on this week's "most wanted" list, according to the IPO professionals.

"Car 54, Where Are You?"

You don't have to be a fan of that early 1960s sitcom, "Car 54, Where Are You?" and the antics of its Bronx cops to be interested in the services of FleetMatics Group. Based in Dublin, the company is a global provider of GPS-based telemetry services enabling companies to track their vehicles. The company has more than 16,000 customers tracking over 281,000 vehicles worldwide. Most of FleetMatics' business - about 85 percent - is based in the United States. FleetMatics Group was formed in 2004. The company has about 446 employees.

FleetMatics Group plans to price 7.8 million ordinary shares at $15 to $17 each on Thursday evening. The IPO is expected to start trading on Friday morning on the New York Stock Exchange under the proposed symbol "FLTX." The joint-lead managers are BofA Merrill Lynch and Barclays. The co-managers are RBC Capital Markets, Stifel Nicolaus Weisel and William Blair.

FleetMatics Group plans to sell about 6.25 million ordinary shares. Selling shareholders aim to sell about 1.56 million ordinary shares. The company expects to have about 34.4 million ordinary shares outstanding after the offering.

A Lock for your ID

Based in Tempe, Arizona, LifeLock provides identity-theft protection services to consumers. It also offers identity risk-assessment and fraud-protection services to businesses. The company serves more than 2.3 million subscribers. Its corporate clients include six of the top 10 U.S. financial institutions, three of the top four U.S. wireless service providers and eight of the top 10 U.S. credit-card issuers, according to its prospectus. LifeLock was formed in 2005. It has about 616 employees.

LifeLock plans to price 15.7 million shares at $9.50 to $11.50 each on Tuesday evening. The IPO is expected to start trading on Wednesday morning on the New York Stock Exchange under the proposed symbol "LOCK." The joint-lead managers are Goldman Sachs, BofA Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank Securities. The co-managers are RBC Capital Markets, Canaccord Genuity and Needham.

LifeLock plans to sell 15.5 million shares and selling shareholders intend to sell 200,000 shares. The company expects to have about 83.4 million shares outstanding after the offering.

The rest of this week's calendar is expected to draw varying degrees of investors' interest. The IPO players will start to look to next week when Shutterstock (SSTK - prospectus) is in the offing, but more on that later.

Stay tuned.

Disclosure: Neither the author nor anyone else on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The author and IPOScoop.com staff do not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

By now, everybody knows the final shoe on the U.S. debt crisis dropped late Friday afternoon. Standard & Poor’s cut Uncle Sam’s perfect credit rating. That move, which until just recently had been unthinkable, came after Wall Street’s closing bell on Friday. What will happen on Monday morning is anybody’s guess -– the United States has never traveled down this road. Japan has, Canada has, and each has muddled through. Now it’s our turn.

Sitting in its bunker, watching the stock market’s roller-coaster action – a 513-point loss in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday and a 416-point swing from the Dow’s session high to its intraday low on Friday – was last week’s IPO calendar. It barely let out a peep.

And no, it was not due to the stock market’s wild gyrations, as many have reported.

Waiting on Washington

The IPO calendar was waiting for Congress and President Obama to come together on an agreement that would keep the financial doors open so the government could pay its bills.

If the federal government had closed down, it would have included the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and there would have been no way for an IPO to get out the door without the SEC’s sign-off.

So the possibility that the SEC might have been closed by a government shutdown was the reason there were only three deals on last week’s calendar -- not the stock market’s wild ride.

Two to Get Ready, 12 for the Show

This brings us to this week. It could be robust, depending upon – yes - the stock market. There are 12 IPOs on the calendar – an even dozen. They expect to raise $1.9 billion –- not too shabby.

Of the 12 deals, two are carry-overs from last week. They are:

• WageWorks (WAGE), which cut the size of its offering to 5.77 million shares at $8 to $9 each, down from $12 to $14 per share, and
• The Dutch auction WhiteGlove House Call Health (WGH).

Both are scheduled to be priced on Monday evening, Aug. 8, to trade on Tuesday morning -– depending on “market conditions.”

Worth Watching

There are a couple of names being mentioned around the IPO water cooler. They are Carbonite (CARB) and Trustwave Holdings (TWAV).

In the Clouds

Carbonite, based in Boston, provides online data backup solutions for consumers and small and medium-sized businesses. Their claim to fame is the Carbonite Personal Cloud (as in cloud computing). The company believes it is the best-known brand in the online data-backup market.

The company, founded in 2005, has about 200 employees. Carbonite reported a net loss of $4.7 million on revenues of $14.4 million for the three months ended June 30, 2011, compared with a net loss of $5.9 million on revenues of $9.1 million for the same period a year ago.

Bankers plans to offer 6.25 million shares at $15 to $17 each to raise about $100 million. (Note: The company plans to offer 5.37 million shares and selling shareholders plan to offer 883,527 shares.)

The IPO is expected to be priced on Tuesday evening, Aug. 9, and to trade on Wednesday morning on the NASDAQ Global Market under the proposed symbol “CARB.” Joint-lead managers are: BofA Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan

All About Security

Trustwave Holdings is a Chicago-based provider of on-demand data security compliance solutions that enable users to achieve and maintain compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards. The company believes its compliance management solutions have helped hundreds of thousands of organizations simplify the complex process of validating compliance.

The company, founded in 2005, has about 600 employees. Trustwave reported a net loss of $1.4 million on revenues of $33.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2011, compared with a net loss of $1.8 million on revenues of $4.2 million for the same period a year ago.

Bankers plans to offer 6.25 million shares at $15 to $17 each to raise about $100 million.

The IPO is expected to be priced on Wednesday evening, Aug. 10, and to trade on Thursday morning on the NASDAQ Global Market under the proposed symbol “TWAV.” Joint-lead managers are: Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Securities and Barclays Capital

As for next week, the IPO traffic just keeps coming. Stay tuned.

Disclosure: Neither the author nor anyone else on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The author and IPOScoop.com staff do not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.