IPOs in Sequence

It may be not be a hot year for IPOs in numeric terms - 23 completed globally so far vs. 51 in 2007 - but it's a lot better than the 10 in 2009 and the meager six in 2008. And some big deals are getting done this year.

Indeed, if underwriters fully exercise their overallotment, sequencing company Pacific Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ:PACB) will be the third largest biotech IPO ever done, at $230 million. The largest was for plasma-derived therapeutics company Talecris Biotherapeutics Inc. in 2009 at $550 million. The second largest was infectious disease and oncology company Tanox Inc. in 2000 at $244.2 million...