“The Facebook IPO will be a dud.”

Had you said the words a few months before Facebook‘s (NASDAQ:FB) much-anticipated initial public offering in May 2012, you might have gotten a few dirty looks or laughs. While it was easy to see the company would have some issues coming public, the disaster that actually followed — its first-day glitch, the Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) fiasco, its four-month halving, its current -30% return — was the last thing anyone expected.

The impact was big — far bigger than Facebook. As I mentioned in a recent article, it all but killed off any hunger for social offerings, and the size of IPOs just hasn’t been the same. Read 

Anyone covering the IPO beat would be hard-pressed to find many more exciting times than the one surrounding the Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) public offering.

Ahead of the Facebook IPO on May 18, 2012, hype was at a fever pitch, causing the company to boost both its price range and shares issued. At launch, Facebook was a $104 billion company that raised a whopping $16 billion, cementing the IPO bronze with history’s third-largest offering behind Visa (NYSE:V) and Enel SpA (OTC:ENLAY).

And then the bottom fell out. Read 

Yesterday, Compuware (NASDAQ:CPWR) filed the necessary papers for a public offering of its cloud division, . The plan is to list the company on the NASDAQ under the ticker “COVS.”  Lead underwriters include Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) and Pacific Crest Securities.

Covisint operates a so-called “cloud engagement” platform, which helps organizations securely connect and collaborate with customers, business partners and suppliers. For the most part, this system is focused on highly regulated industries like autos, healthcare and energy.

So far, Covisint has over 3,000 customers and 18 million users. Of course, a few of those 3,000 are mega customers that represent a huge chunk of the business. For example, 34% of revenues come from General Motors (NYSE:GM). Other big ones are AT&T (NYSE:T), Daimler (PINK:DDAIF) and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Read 

Late last week, natural and organic grocer Sprouts Farmers Markets filed for an IPO.

It was back in 2011 that Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO) purchased the company and then went on to acquire other rivals like Sunflower Farmers Market and Henry’s Farmers Market. As of now, Sprouts has 157 locations in eight states.

What sets it apart is a small-box format; Sprouts has an average store size of 27,500 square feet. That’s not huge, but still enough room to have a wide assortment of fresh produce, seafood, dairy items, frozen foods, wine and even body care products. Read 

While social IPOs from the past year have been a flop — a la Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) — the broader tech sector has been a decent place for deals.

For one, the security sector has been a hotbed of success thanks to notable deals from Imperva (NYSE:IMPV, +108%) and Proofpoint (NASDAQ:PFPT, +40%).

No surprise, considering security software really is a must-have corporate expenditure amid growing incidence of security breaches and cyberthreats; according to DataLoss.org, such incidents hit a record in 2012. Read 

Wall Street keeps churning out the new deals, and investors keep shrugging, as evidenced by last week’s slate of 10 IPOs that finished with mixed results: Company Ticker Offering Price Return TriState Capital TSC $11.50 +17% PennyMac PFSI $18.00 +11% Quintiles Q $40.00 +6% Receptos RCPT $14.00 +4% Cyan CYNI $11.00 +2% First NBC Bank NCBC $24.00 +1% Armada Hoffler AHH $11.50 +1% American Residential ARPI $21.00 0% Emerge Energy EMES $17.00 -2% BioAmber BIOA $10.00 -16% Average – – +3%

Nonetheless, company execs and VCs still need to get theirs, so we’re not seeing a slowdown in activity. This week features seven deals on the docket … and we’re taking a quick look at each: Ambit Biosciences

Ambit Biosciences (NASDAQ:AMBI) is a biotech company that focuses on treatments that inhibit kinases, which are drivers for diseases such as cancer. Three drugs are in development, with the lead one being quizartinib — a Phase 2B trial treatment for acute myeloid leukemia. Read