7 tech IPOs that investors 'unfriended'

Nikhil Pradhan | May 24, 2012

For the past week, it has been impossible to search for the word "IPO" in Google and not be inundated with stories on the Facebook's debut on the stock market.

For the past week, it has been impossible to search for the word "IPO" in Google and not be inundated with stories on the Facebook's debut on the stock market. However, over the course of the week, there has been a visible shift in the tone of the stories. From wondering whether Facebook's IPO would open the floodgates for other social media companies, analysts are now left wondering why the Facebook IPO flopped and failed to provide the so called post-listing "pop."

While it's still really early to gauge if this social networking fairytale will change into a grotesque Lovecraftian story, one thing is clear -- Facebook is not alone in the clubhouse when it comes to big names that underperformed during the early stages of their going public. Here are seven other notable members of that club from the not so distant past:

1. Groupon

Groupon is the prime example of how an Internet darling can suffer a quick, steep fall from its pedestal. The deal website quickly caught the interest of consumers by offering deals on everything from pizzas to travel getaways to household items. However, the road it took to its IPO was very rocky and included an investigation from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and top management leaving the company. After abruptly canceling its IPO in September of 2011, Groupon finally went public in November of the same year with a share price of $20.

Initially, the shares continued to be traded above that amount, reaching a peak of $31.14. However, in less than twenty days since its listing, the shares were being traded at almost $4 less than the launch price or about $16 per share.

Groupon has never managed to gain footing since then and at the time of writing, its shares were being traded at less than $12.

2. Zynga

In spite of being responsible for the most popular games on the planet (Words With Friends, Farmville, etc), Zynga is not a company that's liked universally. Many blame it for forcing players to pay real money to get benefits in-game and others accuse it of plagiarizing content for most of its games. However, none of that mattered when Zynga announced its intentions of raising $1 billion by going public in December 2011 at a price of $10 per share. The stock received much attention and investors hoped to make a killing.

However, in a debut that would make Paris Hilton's film debut look successful, Zynga shares failed to take flight and fell below the $10 IPO price on the day of listing. Although the share value did manage to claw its way back up to a peak of $14.69 in March of this year, Facebook's debacle in the market has pulled Zynga shares down to an all time of low of just below $7.

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