Well yes, &quot;bombed IPO&quot; is a relative term. If you float a pile of trash onto the stock market and rake in a lot of $$$ then sure cash out and go live on a nice tropical island somewhere while leaving a smoking crater behind full of employees holding worthless options. From the early investors standpoint that&#x27;s a win.<p>However, that can only happen so many times before the &quot;suckers&quot; that were buying these things at IPO catch on and lose their appetite. That sort of thing is in part what&#x27;s happening and in part why these write downs are occurring. The paper valuation during funding rounds is only real if the &quot;real market&quot; (i.e. everyone, not just a few VCs writing founders a cheque) is willing to buy shares at that value. If the market continues to get more skeptical, and there&#x27;s every indication that this will continue to be the case, then down rounds are an almost certainty moving forward for many firms.<p>That&#x27;s also a big problem for employee options, which typically only have value if the valuation keeps skyrocketing.