Hoover's IPO Scorecard Reveals Loss Of Momentum In 2005

For Immediate Release

IPOs Decreased By 16% For The Year

AUSTIN, TEXAS - January 4, 2006 - 196 companies went public on the major U.S. stock exchanges in 2005, a 16% decrease in the number of IPOs over 2004, according to Hoover's IPO Scorecard (www.hoovers.com/ipo/scorecard). Hoover's, Inc. (www.hoovers.com) is a D&B company that gives its customers a competitive edge with insightful information about industries, companies and key decision makers. The 196 IPOs offered on the NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX in 2005 raised $34.1 billion, compared to 233 IPOs in 2004, which raised $43 billion.

Year-in-Review from Hoover's IPO Scorecards

Q1 2005: With nine IPOs, January 2005 became the best January for public offerings since 2000. The only 2005 IPO to raise more than $1 billion was that of chemical maker Huntsman Corp., which went public in February 2005 and raised $1.38 billion, making it the largest stock offering of the year.

Q2 2005: The 46 public offerings in Q2 2005 marked the first time in two years that the IPO market saw a decline in the number of IPOs from quarter to prior-year quarter. Q2 2005 also saw the emergence of specialty retailers as some of the more successful IPOs, including urban fashion producer Citi Trends and Zumiez.

Q3 2005: With 64 IPOs, Q3 2005 became the busiest third quarter for public offerings since 2000. The second-largest Chinese-language Internet search engine, Baidu.com (Google owns 2.6%), went public in Q3 2005 and closed up 354% on its first day of trading. It continues to trade up 133%, making it one of the top IPOs of 2005, although it trails Citi Trends, which is up 205% since its May IPO.

Q4 2005: With only 46 IPOs in Q4 2005, compared to 79 IPOs in Q4 2004, the IPO market for 2005 ended on a downward trend. However, several Q4 IPO companies managed to break records. Baltimore athletic apparel company Under Armour, Inc. logged the year's best debut for a U.S. company, jumping 95%, while Electro-Optical Sciences, a hand-held medical device maker, claimed the second-best debut for a U.S. firm, up 54% on its first day of trading.

Additional Findings from Hoover's IPO Scorecard for Q4 2005:

Top Ten Best-Returning IPOs for Q4:

• Best First-Day Gain: Under Armour, Inc. 95%
• Worst First-Day Drop: Vimicro International Corporation -16%

• Although the IPO market virtually shuts down in mid-December, computer memory-chip maker Spansion Inc. (joint venture of Advanced Micro Devices and Fujitsu Limited) went public on December 16, 2005, ranking among the largest IPOs of 2005.

"Even though the IPO market was down in 2005 compared to 2004, overall IPO activity is still greatly improved when you take into account the performance in 2002 when only 70 companies went public, and in 2003 when there were just 77 IPOs," said Rachel Brush, Hoover's vice president of content. "There is a slow, steady strengthening of the IPO market, especially with some mega-sized deals waiting in the wings for 2006. Credit card giant MasterCard and defense contractor SAIC, Inc. are each looking to raise more than $1 billion."

Hoover's provides continuously updated information about thousands of private and public companies worldwide and analyzes the IPO market daily to produce the quarterly IPO Scorecard, a regular wrap-up of IPO activity released on the IPO Central section of Hoover's. Each IPO Scorecard includes an assortment of facts selected by Hoover's editors for those following the IPO market, including the best- and worst-performing IPOs, the biggest one-day jumps and drops in the first day of trading, and a breakdown of IPOs by industry sector.

About Hoover's, Inc.

Hoover's, a D&B company, gives its customers a competitive edge with insightful information about industries, companies, and key decision makers. Hoover's provides this updated information for sales, marketing, business development, and other professionals who need intelligence on U.S. and global companies, industries, and the people who lead them. This information, along with powerful tools to search, sort, download and integrate the content, is available through Hoover's (www.hoovers.com), the company's premier online service. Hoover's business information is also available through corporate intranets and distribution agreements with licensees, as well as via Hoover's books. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

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