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Similar despair was hitting small companies all over America. EZ Communications, a Fairfax, Va., broadcasting company with 15 radio stations, was expecting to raise $22 million in an initial public offering scheduled to take place the day after the market crash. Said Company President Alan Box: "These plans are now on hold for 60 days, six months, perhaps forever. We'll have to find other means of financing growth."
So will most other small firms. Unless the stock market recovers, young companies may have to go back to the venture capitalists that gave them seed money in the first place. But that source may be harder to tap, since venture capitalists generally make their investments in hopes of making a killing when the firm goes public. So whatever short-run damage the market crash produces, it poses an even more serious long-term threat: a slowdown in the growth of small companies and the rate of innovation in the U.S.
In many ways, the Crash of '87 has been like a sudden, savage typhoon. Major corporations, like large ships, are holding up well, but many small firms could be in real difficulty.