Two big coming biotech IPOs are likely to reignite investor interest in biotech, specifically the genomoics sector. Complete Genomics (Future symbol: GNOM) and Pacific Biosciences (Future symbol:PACB) have filed S-1 Registration Statements with plans to go public in the fourth quarter. This also happens to be the time when the biotech market is bullish seasonally.

Biotech had a good year in a choppy overall 2010 market, with the NYSE Arca Biotech Index up 15.3% year-to-date (YTD). Selected molecular diagnostics stocks have fared well YTD with GenProbe (GPRO) up 12%, Illumina (ILMN) up 50% , and Sequenom (SQNM) up 44%.

The Tesla Motors IPO is the talk of the town today, but to me it is a bad flashback to the poor IPO practices of the 1990s. The electric car company priced 1 million shares yesterday at $17 per share and it is expected to start trading today.

Tesla doesn't make a dime, and it's still a cash-flow negative entity, bringing back fond memories of the late 1990s when hundreds of unprofitable venture-capital backed firms were floated on the public markets, making entrepreneurs and venture capitalists rich while draining the accounts of millions of unsuspecting investors. A very small percentage of these compeanies ended up doing well. It's a high-risk prospect. This is not an IPO for my taste. When investing in public companies, I prefer companies that actually make money.

But set aside these fiscal details for a moment and consider this: Tesla sells expensive electric cars -- each of which require complex battery packs made up of thousands of cells -- for close to $100,000 each. They are trying to market this product in the teeth of the worst recession in 100 years.

Here are some more facts about Tesla you may want to consider before you buy any of the stock:

• The company's loss in the first quarter rose to $29.5 million from $16 million a year ago
• Production of Tesla's sedan, which is years behind schedule and is consider the key to making the company money, has slipped again. The big guys, such as GM and Nissan, are catching up in electric vehicle production.
• The company will have a market cap around $1.3 billion after it floats.
• Venture Beat did some fine work in uncovering that founder and CEO Elon Musk has been having cash-flow issues. Might that have rushed the IPO along?

Good luck, Tesla.

Who knew? The IPO market is doing well. Despite a glum market day featuring extreme weakness in bonds and a lackluster stock market, three companies went public today with roaring debuts: Calix Networks, Maxlinear, and First Interstate Bank. MaxLinear, which makes RF (radio frequency) chips for consumer devices such as settop boxes and mobile phones  opened 31% higher in a New York Stock Exchange listing, while broadband equipment maker Calix Networks Inc. rose 28% on its first trade, also on the NYSE. A regional bank system, First Interstate, opened 10% higher on the Nasdaq. Three for three, not bad! I guess the underwriters have got their pricing right. The new issuance shows investor demand for relatively young, growing companies. MaxLinear sold 6.4 million Class A shares, one million more than originally expected, at $14 a share. Calix priced 6.3 million shares at $13, the high end of its $11 to $13 range. First Interstate BancSystem Inc. sold 1.3 million more shares than expected, but priced them at $14.50, toward the lower end of its $14-$16 range. The IPO of Calix System is of special relief to me, as my former outfit Light Reading had been looking for the company's IPO since about 2004. Finally Calix CEO Carl Russo, the former startup CEO who scored a $7 billion dollar  deal in selling Cerent to Cisco Systems in 1999, has had (another) big day! All three companies appear to be riding some nice trends: Calix focuses on broadband access equipment, which could be getting a boost from a national broadband policy. MaxLinear is riding the wave in the mobile wireless market, and First Interstate is benefitting from a rebound in national banking, as consumers shy away from the big bad "too-big-to-fail" banks.

Parsing today's news, I see that Twitter has announced a new platform that does some stuff. I wish I could tell you what it was, but the press reports are so vague that I don't understand! For example, VentureBeat reports that "Twitter CEO Ev Willams demonstrated a new platform today that will spread the microblogging network's proifles, tweets, and possibly advertising across the Web." Okay. First, why is the VentureBeat reporter referring to Evan Willams as "Ev." Is this to show they're buddies? Sheesh, amateur hour. Next, what the heck  is this thing? Tweets will be everywhere. Aren't they already? And how are they doing this? Some other takes on the Twitter "news," which I think was announced at the rapidly devolving SXSW (South By Southwest) conference:

• TechCrunch's Michael Arrington is cringing at the fact that Twitter wants to do good. He should.
• Twitter has made some sort of announcement on its blog. "We’ve developed a new set of frameworks for adding this Twitter experience anywhere on the web." ARGHHGHG. Can somebody actually tell me what this thing does!!!
• Ahh, now this is my cup of tea: The Evan Williams keynote actually sucked, and people bailed. (CNET)
• If you want to ask real questions (apparently the interviewer at SXSW didn't), here are some on Twitter itself (Mashable)

Alrighty, Twitter, everybody's talking about you. That's great. Now get on with it and do an IPO, to show that the technology markets can still drive the American economy.

I have been catching up on some data and news stories about the beleagured venture capital industry.  A continuing shakeout in the industry means that fewer venture-capital firms are in the market with less money, meaning tougher terms for startups. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this will change any time soon unless we get some gigantic IPOs to pay back all the funds. Yes, you can read some success stories about M&A and wins from a few of the major, top-tier firms. But that's just a small percentage of the industry. In sum total, most venture capital funds have had crappy performance over the last 10 years and many of them are shutting down. According to this Wall Street Journal article, the number of venture-capital firms shrunk from 1,023 to 794 from 2005 to 2009. And they're raising less money. 125 venture funds in the U.S. collected $13.6 billion last year, down from 203 funds that raised $28.7 billion in 2008, according to the Journal.

Greentech Media, a fine place to go for everything green and techy, says that 2010 promises to be a big year in the green technology IPO market, with potential IPO candidates stacking up like cars on the 405 in L.A. Companies making a bid for public market debuts include thin-film solar play Solyndra, Chinese solar firm JinkoSolar, and yet another Chinese solar polysilicon maker Daqo Energy. Those companies filed for IPOs seeking to raise $300 million, $100 million, and $100 million, respectively. That's $500 million in capital among four companies, for those of you who can't bother with the math. Greentech says that other companies that might seek IPOs include Nanosolar once it gets to $50 million in revenue.   SunRun and SolarCity are other potential IPOs. Greentech says other potential companies include:

•  Tesla Motors : electric cars for rich people.
•  Bridgelux, an LED company
•  Brightsource  
• Silver Spring Networks, a smart grid company
•  Trilliant, another grid-maker
•  Enphase, which makes solar inverters.

We can only hope the markets hold up to support these IPOs, which would make for a very interesting 2010 and bring a lot of fresh capital to the green technology market.