Out Fox The $treet

Recent IPOs in the enterprise flash-storage segment have had very different trading outcomes. The more recent IPO of Nimble Storage ( NYSE: NMBL     )  performed much better than expected, while Violin Memory ( NYSE: VMEM     ) pretty much tanked a few months prior. The companies offer different paths to solve the growing complexity of data-storage requirements of enterprises and data centers. The traditional disk-storage systems aren't adequate enough to meet the storage and performance requirements of the modern data world. The data-storage industry is estimated by IDC and Gartner to reach approximately $63.8 billion for both storage systems and software by 2017. Nimble estimates that the addressable market for its services will reach more than $35 billion by 2017, based on IDC estimates. Read the full article here . Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Investors in GSV Capital ( NASDAQ: GSVC     ) should be applauding the recent surge in Twitter ( NYSE: TWTR     ) shares. The leading platform for instant communication recently hit new highs, surging to $52, which should propel the NAV of GSV higher. GSV Capital is a publicly traded investment fund that provides individual investors the opportunity to invest in a basket of high-growth, venture-backed private firms. The stock surged initially in early 2012 based on the Facebook excitement, but it eventually plunged along with Facebook and the other social media stocks. Read the full article here . Disclosure: Long GSVC. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

For investors that only read the earnings headlines, a ton of additional information can usually be gleaned from the related conference calls. The recent earnings call for GSV Capital ( NASDAQ: GSVC ) provided some interesting nuggets regarding Twitter ( NYSE: TWTR ) and the general IPO market. GSV Capital is a publicly traded investment fund still going through its early stages, with investments in venture-backed private companies only now developing into public firms on a constant basis. The fund provides the small investor access to pre-IPO stocks where a Twitter stake can be obtained at a lower cost than the IPO price. Unfortunately, the positions also come with a high management cost and still unpredictable results. Chegg 's recent IPO could provide more insight into whether the education technology theme plays out better than the initial trading of Violin Memory ( NYSE: VMEM ). Read the full article here . Disclosure: Long GSVC. Please review the discl...

Small-Cap Insight Plenty of opportunity exists for Fusion-io ( FIO ) to be a major winner, but the company must improve execution. The potential to replace hard disk drives (HDDs) with flash-storage is enormous, but the company continues to spend too much on attracting new customers to generate much in the way of profits. Fusion-io aims to deliver the world's data faster via platform and defined storage solutions that accelerate virtualization, databases, cloud computing, big data and performance applications. It has long been primarily focused on Apple and Facebook as customers, but it has spent the last year transitioning to more enterprise and other hyperscale customers for diversification. Has the company finally reached the next growth phase that will push the stock higher? Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

The recent IPO of flash-storage provider Violin Memory ( NYSE: VMEM     ) failed to impress the market due to several persistent issues including an auditors going concern doubt. The IPO process can be very volatile and investors need to look no further than the Facebook IPO to see how a disappointing market reaction can quickly turn around. The major problem with Violin Memory was the shocking level of losses. The company lost so much money over the last six months that it likely had to raise money. Another factor in the recent pricing weakness has been the horrible market trading of other flash-storage providers Fusion-io ( NYSE: FIO     ) and OCZ Technology ( NASDAQ: OCZ     ) . Does the recent weakness provide a buying opportunity for patient long-term investors? Read the full article here . Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details.