It seems like this year some businesses fell out of favor with the entrepreneurial gods, while others basked in their glory.
Golden children Facebook and Zynga got their silver spoons yanked away, while SpaceX, Airbnb, and Kickstarter were blessed beyond measure.
See who came out of 2012 on top.
Check out the decisions we couldn't stop talking about >
More From Inc.:
SpaceX Carries Out Its Historic Mission
Don't Put Your Customers At Risk
When Politics And Free Speech Don't Mix
The Facebook IPO blunder.
For investors and the tech industry, there wasn’t much to like about Facebook’s feverishly anticipated IPO in May.
The offering experienced technical, tactical, and ultimately, legal problems: by August the company’s stock had lost more than half its value. (More recently, the price has risen, reflecting—among other things—Facebook’s improved prospects for mobile.) That debacle gave other IPO-eager companies the jitters and prompted the SEC to review some of its rules.
Space X's stake in the space travel game as a private company.
The touchdown of the Atlantis in 2011 marked the end of NASA’s adventures in manned space travel. But the end of an era doesn’t necessarily mean the end.
In May, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule became the first private craft to visit the International Space Station, part of a $1.6 billion NASA contract. SpaceX’s first manned flight is expected in 2015; and NASA has contracted with two other private companies for “space taxis” to keep us boldly going, etc.
Zynga's dying breaths.
You know what they say: it’s all fun and games until somebody loses $53 million in one quarter.
At Zynga—until recently a favored Facebook friend—the stock is down. Advertising is down. Innovation is down. (EA, which sued Zynga for copyright infringement, is just the largest firm complaining that Farmville’s parent doesn’t grow its own.)
Last month, the company shed 5% of its workforce; more than a dozen key executives had already beat a retreat. For investors who bought into the lackluster IPO last December, it’s been a long year of disillusionment. To non-gamers, the decline of a business selling virtual objects for real cash might seem like the restoration of sanity.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider