Internet companies: Welcome to IPOville. Social media firms see champagne; others see bubbles. INITIAL public offerings( IPOs) of internet start ups are like buses: you wait ages for one to arrive, then several turn up at once. After years in the doldrums, the IPO market for technology firms has suddenly sprung to life again in America. LinkedIn, a social network for professionals, kicked things off last month with a flotation on the New York Stock Exchange( NYSE) that valued it at $8.8 billion-572 times its profits last year at the end of the first day of trading. Now a number of web outfits, including Groupon, which offers online coupons, and Pandora Media, an internet radio firm, are queuing to join the party. Other start ups could soon add themselves to the crowd, notably Zynga, the creator of addictive online games such as FarmVille, in which players grow turnips and breed pigs. Web companies from China, Russia and elsewhere are also rushing to list on American exchanges. Shortly after LinkedIn's stunning debut, which saw its share price more than double, Yandex, Russia's largest search engine, floated its shares on the NYSE. Its price soared by more than 50% on the first day of trading.
