October is not an auspicious month for stock markets. Thirty-five years ago, Black Monday put the brakes on what had been up to then a display of irrational exuberance for which the markets are notorious for good reason. And October was already famous for sudden drops to the point that stockbrokers are somewhat superstitious about the month. It might not seem the ideal time for an initial public offering (IPO) but for a company like Sondrel, a specialist in electronics design, waiting for the supposedly ideal time is probably a bad idea.
For the past year, the chip market has been riding high as companies who now rely on electronics to underpin their designs found that getting hold of key products got a lot harder in the wake of the Covid pandemic. Such demand-driven shortages in semiconductors, however, are transitory. This one took a lot of people by surprise because the great financial crisis of 2008 put a dampener on the business for a lot longer...