Bright Horizons Family Solution, a provider of employer-sponsored child care, early education, and work solutions founded in 1986, is scheduled to begin trading on the NYSE today. This IPO is the first for a Massachusetts based company in 2013 and only the 17th in the past two years. Bright horizons will be traded under the symbol BFAM.
Analyst with S&P Capital IQ Richard Peterson says, “The health of IPOs serves as a barometer for the regional and national economies, and although Texas and California dominate the number of public offerings, eight coming out of a state in one year is not an insignificant number.” The financial crisis of 2008 hit IPO hard. In fact, only 21 IPOs were made nationwide in the year 2008, with a total of $22.4 billion raised. Nowadays, only established companies with recognizable revenue growth are going public.
However, Ernest & Young’s year-end global IPO update predicts an increase in IPO’s fueled by financial and technology firms in the United States. In fact, VentureBeat reports that Box is a likely contender for IPO. The company is at the forefront of cloud technology and has all the pieces, including a large revenue stream, in place for an IPO later this year.