• Fortune, Tuesday, August 26, 2008 11:15 AM

The fourth quarter IPO season figures to be a pretty dismal one, Fortune reports, as only 43 companies have gone public so far this year, down 75% compared to the same time last year. To match last year's total of 273, we'd need 14 companies per week to go public between now and the end of 2008. The last time the IPO market was this dry came after the Internet bubble burst in 2001. Between '01 and '03, 70 to 80 companies went public; excluding last year's monster number, 200-plus IPOs per year have been the norm.

In order to go public in the fourth quarter, now is about the time when a company needs to have filed. So, who's on deck? Not tech, according to Paul Bard, a senior analyst with IPO research firm Renaissance Capital, alternative energy is leading the year-end charge. Of the last 17 companies to file for an IPO, nearly a third are green energy companies.

The hottest prospect from the Internet sector is Russian-based search company Yandex. The Web company, which is actually bigger than Google in Russia, hasn't filed yet, although it's widely rumored to be looking for a fourth quarter IPO. Because Yandex is based overseas, it will have an easier time jumping through regulatory hoops, and could file to go public in the coming weeks and months and still make the 2008 deadline.

Read the whole story at Fortune »