Will Facebook, Groupon IPO This Year Or Not?

Not according to one IPO specialist. Paul Bard, IPO analyst and vice president of Renaissance Capital, said that Facebook and Groupon are in a great spots because investors are willing to give the companies money at any time. “We believe Facebook is likely to file for an IPO by the end of 2011, which would set them up for an IPO sometime in early 2012,” Bard said. Bard said he expects the same from Groupon, but did leave open the possibility that the Chicago-based company could go public before Facebook. "Investors have been increasingly craving growth and that has been demonstrated by the performance of the IPO market in 2010 — with virtually all of the top performers being small-cap growth companies," Bard said.