The Nasdaq closed above 5,000 today, marking its first visit to that hallowed threshold since the halcyon¹ days of 2000. So where are all the tech IPOs?

纳斯达克指数周一收于5000多点，这是自2000年科技泡沫破灭后纳指首次冲上这一峰值。在一片繁华似锦中，怎么不见科技公司IPO的身影？

So far this year, only one tech company has gone public. That would be cloud storage company Box Inc., which raised $175 million near the end of January. After that, bupkis.

自年初迄今，新上市的科技公司只有一家，那就是云存储服务供应商Box。该公司1月底登陆股市，融资1.75亿美元。随后，就是一片沉寂。

To be sure, there have been IPOs. Not nearly as many as we saw during the first two months of 2014 — 29 vs. 41 — but still a bunch of offerings from companies in such sectors² as biotech and real estate. Tech, however, has been conspicuously³ absent.

当然，新股IPO一直没有间断。今年前两个月，美股共完成29宗IPO，虽然没有去年同期的41宗那样多，但其中不乏来自生物科技行业和房地产行业的公司身影。不过，科技公司明显缺席。

There is no definitive⁴ reason for the vacancy⁵, but the most likely culprits are late-stage investors⁶. Not just the traditional players like Institutional Venture Partners and Insight Venture Partners, but all of the hedge fund and mutual⁷ fund tourists that are increasingly mining the private markets for a bit of extra yield (or perhaps they’re bored — flip⁸ a coin). With plenty of private capital available, why go public? Isn’t it better to be known as a “$20 billion company” when there aren’t any pesky stock trades that could turn you into a “$15 billion company” (or less) in an afternoon?

出现这种空缺的原因并不明确，但最有可能要归结到晚期投资者身上。不仅是传统的像Institutional Venture Partners和Insight Venture Partners这样的风投公司在深挖私募市场，就连各类对冲基金和共同基金也越来越多地涌入这个市场，以获取一丁点额外收益（也可能是因为他们太无聊了，抛硬币决定的）。在私募资金充足的情况下，公司为什么要上市呢？当一家“200亿美元公司”不是更好吗？既没有讨厌的股票买卖，也不会因此在一下午就变成一家“150亿美元公司”（甚至更惨）。

The irony⁹ is that this new flood of capital is being made possible by JOBS Act legislation that was, in part, designed to encourage more startups to go public.

具有讽刺意味的是，引发新一轮私募投资潮的是《创业企业融资法案》（JOBS ACT），而制定该法案的初衷之一却是鼓励更多初创型企业上市。

In the short-term, this doesn’t matter to anyone but the bankers and stock exchanges that are being momentarily deprived of new fees. In the long-term, however, it means that retail¹⁰ investors won’t get to participate in the massive growth that new tech issuers used to experience in the months and years after listing.

短期内，除了手续费收入暂时断流的投行人士和股票交易所外，科技公司不愿上市的现象对其他人没有任何影响。但长期来看，这种情况意味着散户投资者不能再像以前那样，在科技公司上市后的几个月乃至几年里分享其迅猛增长所带来的收益。

So if you happen to see a tech IPO anytime soon, be sure to pay attention. It might be a while before another one comes around.

因此，如果大家在短时间内凑巧碰到了某家科技公司的上市，请务必予以关注。在下一宗科技公司IPO出现之前，我们或许要等上一段时间了。