It Usually Takes Bear Markets to Slow U.S. IPOs This Much

Companies are showing the kind of reluctance to go public in the U.S. that has usually only surfaced after bear markets. This year’s initial public offerings amount to $4.99 billion, which would be the third-lowest total for a first half in the past 25 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The lowest were in 2009, when the most recent bear market ended, and in 2003, just after the previous one. “The pendulum has probably swung too far against going public,”Marc Andreessen, co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, said Tuesday at the Bloomberg Technology Conference in San Francisco.