Deals, it appears, go through cycles.
Some years the market is red hot and other times — well, things fall apart. Or shift in some way. For example, 2020 kickstarted a wave of initial public offerings. They hit a 20 year high, with a total of 12 IPOs in the retail segment. The following year saw a blizzard of special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, that were used as a vehicle for going public.