You can take a demand-side approach and say that money has been flowing out of the old guard of internet companies into the new, but it wouldn’t explain why many new IPOs have been down after their first day of trading (which historically has been the pattern for all IPOs — the only gains you see in the first 5 years are in the first day — e-mail me if you want me to dig up the paper).

At the same time, the overall market is down on inflationary worries, so some would say that there is a flight to quality (of earnings) in favor of more traditional companies, leaving tech cos in the dumps.

Hard to separate for the two for the old guard, but the new guard appears to be worrying about the relative level of the market, rather than looking at the absolute level — the IPO market has never been stronger than it is, generally, today. Granted it isn’t as strong this month as it was 2 months ago, but we’re talking 2 sigmas versus 3.

If these companies can continue to find private funding for their growth, great (Wit should have no problems), but e-loan needs to grow and will pay dearly for taking private money over public to fund their growth (always a liquidity premium demanded for private money). I would not have postponed e-loan’s IPO, and if I were them I would at least give a reason for the postponement; not doing so creates too much speculation.