Florida Bancshares Company

With initial public offerings scarce as ever after three years of a punishing bear market, IPO stands for something different these days: "It's pretty obscure." Bancshares of Florida snapped the IPO market out of its eight-week drought Monday, but the largely unknown regional bank, based in Naples, Fla., did so with a whimper, selling 900,000 shares to the public at $10 each in a deal that grabbed little attention on Wall Street.

With initial public offerings scarce as ever after three years of a punishing bear market, IPO stands for something different these days: "It's pretty obscure." Bancshares of Florida snapped the IPO market out of its eight-week drought Monday, but the largely unknown regional bank, based in Naples, Fla., did so with a whimper, selling 900,000 shares to the public at $10 each in a deal that grabbed little attention on Wall Street.