Number of Publicly-Traded Companies Dropping, but Telx and CoreSite on the Way

In the data center industry, we've got two major companies in registration, but for the rest of the market, there are a dwindling number of investment opportunities. In a WSJ story today, Bill Hambrecht notes that the number of companies filing proxies with the SEC has dropped from 9,100 ten years ago, to 6,450 today. And the number of companies tracked by the Dow Jones U.S. Total Market Index is down to 4,136, a drop of nearly 20% over the last five years.

He cites limited interest from i-banks in underwriting smaller IPOs now, and I'd add that Sarbanes-Oxley hasn't helped either. But with Telx and CoreSite on the way, the data center industry is likely to stand out even more among public market investors.