IPOs have had a dismal 2011

— -- The market for companies issuing new shares to the public was disappointing in almost every regard in 2011, snuffing out what many hoped would be a third year of recovery after 2008, when initial public offerings slowed to a trickle.

"It was a bad year," says Francis Gaskins of IPOdesktop.com "People scattered away from IPOs."

That was clear in:

•Disappointing volume. Worldwide, IPOs raised $138 billion from 336 deals, down 41% from the $235 billion raised from 478 deals in 2010, says Renaissance Capital. In the U.S., companies raised $36.3 billion from 125 IPOs, down 6% from 2010.

•Rising number of broken deals. Investors shudder when an IPO's stock price falls below its offering price. But such broken deals were more common in 2011 than since 2008. Zynga, the online game company, was the most recent example. Shares of the company have fallen 5% from their initial $10.

More than half, 62%, of all IPOs this year are trading below their offering prices and 70% are trading below their first day close, a USA TODAY analysis of IPOscoop.com data found. Just 33% and 39% deals broke in 2010 and 2009.

•Lagging performance. The average recent IPO, measured by the FTSE Renaissance Global IPO index, is down 21% this year.

The stock market's ongoing struggles through the year were a major ankle weight for IPOs, says IPOscoop.com's John Fitzgibbon. "The market … ran out of steam in April, and then turned south and took everything down the toilet with it."

Nearly 75% of the year's IPOs were priced before Aug. 1, when stock prices overall were higher, says Paul Bard of Renaissance. Those IPO prices have proved to be difficult high-water marks for stocks to catch up to.

Investors' big-time fallout with IPOs of Chinese companies also slowed down the market. Chinese IPOs had been a driving force for IPOs, but that power faded as investors soured on the deals. "The whole Chinese sector cratered," Gaskins says.

Some bright spots remain and give hope for 2012. There were 44 tech IPOs in 2011, accounting for more than a third of all IPOs, Bard says. Meanwhile, some large or promising IPOs sit in the pipeline, including private equity firm Carlyle, retailer Toys R Us and online sites Yelp and Kayak. "It's a big backlog," Gaskins says. "How it does really depends on the stock market averages."