Motley Fool: Are IPOs a good investment?

Q: Are initial public offerings (IPOs) good investments? - M.C., New Orleans

A: IPOs can be volatile and frequently don't fare too well in their first year. Also, it's mainly been the rich or well-connected who get shares at their low initial prices. The rest of us end up buying later, often after prices have risen considerably. The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, for example, debuted on the market last month. Shares were initially priced at $68 apiece, but due to high demand, opened at $92.70, surging 38 percent on the first day. The shares have traded below that since.

Foolish Trivia

Name that company

I built my first car in 1904. You may know me for my fancy cars, but I'm an industrial powerhouse, providing power for aircraft, ships and land applications. My engines power more than 30 commercial aircrafts, including the new Airbus A350 and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. I have almost 13,000 engines in service in the civil aerospace market. I have 4,000 marine customers and equipment installed on more than 30,000 vessels worldwide, including those of 70 navies. I've sold thousands of gas turbines, have more than 50 years of experience with nuclear power and employ more than 17,000 engineers. Who am I?

Last week's answer: Whole Foods Market

The Take

Making a call on T-Mobile

T-Mobile (NYSE: TMUS), branding itself "the Un-Carrier," is aggressively improving its network.

After more than two years of modernization that included scooping up a lot of low-band spectrum, T-Mobile now has the fastest 4G LTE network in the United States. Low-band spectrum is important because low-band signals can penetrate buildings better, providing better indoor coverage. Such signals also travel farther, which allows carriers to build fewer cell towers, saving on capital expenditures in the process.

In 2013, T-Mobile moved aggressively on pricing to attract subscribers with promotions. The results are paying off, as T-Mobile netted more than 1 million subscribers in each of the past five quarters, gaining market share from its larger rivals.

T-Mobile is succeeding because CEO John Legere has positioned the company as an agitator - a brand willing to call foul on its whole industry. With its Un-Carrier campaign, lower prices and more transparency than its competitors, the company is getting stronger.

Legere has made it quite clear that T-Mobile isn't letting up on its aggressive strategies any time soon.

Many have speculated that T-Mobile would be an attractive asset for an acquirer, but it's becoming harder to see how the company would benefit from such a deal when it seems to be doing just fine on its own.