Why is facebook going public?

[PingSpike]

Facebook holds a treasure trove of valuable marketing data such as which types of beer, chips and energy drinks that jobless 20somethings like.

 

[lothar]

They need to register with the SEC but don't need to go public.

If you're doing that then you might as well get the benefits of being public.

If that regulation wasn't there, I doubt they'd be going public...
Facebook has zero debt, and their revenue/profit accounting shows me that they're no Pandora, LinkedIn, or Groupon.

If they wanted to go public, they would have done so sooner regardless of SEC regulations or not.

 

[fskimospy]

I'm glad to see some people got past the crazy and said the correct answer. They are already going to run into federal regulations even without going public, so they might as well do it.

They are only putting a small fraction of the company's value up for purchase.

 

[theeedude]

The guys at the top will cash out while the employees will be locked in for 6 months.

 

[momeNt]

You can say the same for Google then.

Oh, yes absolutely you could. Who knows the direction of advertising and data aggregation will take in order for facebook to be a strong buy and hold stock. Facebook and google make money essentially the same way, so while they may be the best at what they do, their clients will still need to value what they offer in order for them to be a good stock.

I'm not expecting somebody else to come and topple either google or facebook and expect their stock to plunge, I'd just always be looking to see that what they offer is still what large companies are looking for and willing to spend their marketing/advertising budgets on.

 

[Ausm]

The guys at the top will cash out while the employees will be locked in for 6 months.

When I buy a stock that's the first thing I do is checkout the insider trading to see if it's a sinking ship or not.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

money. Its always about money.

 

[fskimospy]

money. Its always about money.

Gee, a public stock offering is about money? No way!

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Gee, a public stock offering is about money? No way!

I didn't ask the question don't get slick with me douche

 

[Matthiasa]

Facebook holds a treasure trove of valuable marketing data such as which types of beer, chips and energy drinks that jobless 20somethings like.

Because jobless 20 somethings are why it has made billions?
Think about it for a second.

 

[Malfeas]

To make even more money for the original shareholders/owners? Also I'm sure the company is being wined and dined by the investment bank who would be in charge of the IPO, which stands to make an obscene amount of profit.

 

[hal2kilo]

Whatever will you do if Farmville becomes corrupted by the 1%?

Lol.

 

[ShawnD1]

Because jobless 20 somethings are why it has made billions?
Think about it for a second.

He's right though. It's as funny as how Jay Leno was paid millions to host a late night TV show that only unemployed people watch. Who can stay up to watch a show that comes on at 12:30am? Unemployed people or people who work weird hours. The people working weird hours often have tiring jobs (ie registered nurse doing the swing shift) and they don't watch crappy shows like Leno.

 

[Matthiasa]

Some people don't need much sleep and he only made that much since advertisers were making a ton of money during that time slot on the channel.

Unemployed tend not to have significant amounts of disposable cash to allow that to happen.

That and you can't say all 600+ million on Facebook are that way.. nearly everyone has Facebook now within this country even if they don't admit to it since its not "cool".

 

[the DRIZZLE]

They are only putting a small fraction of the company's value up for purchase.

IPO's are almost always just a small percentage of the company's value. I'm sure there is pressure from many of the investors for them to go public. If I was Zuckerberg I'd want to take some money off the table ASAP just because it's easier to sleep at night without all your assets tied up in one company.

 

[sm625]

Why is facebook going public? Got to mark a major market top somehow. The last top was more or less marked by netflix.

 

[Remobz]

I silently Pray for the demise of facebook.

 

[Doppel]

If it really will be valued at 75-100B that would put its price earnings ratio fvcking INSANE.

 

[Jaskalas]

Because jobless 20 somethings are why it has made billions?
Think about it for a second.

No need, government hands them a check.

 

[DesiPower]

 

[sunzt]

The goal of any venture capitalist investment is to either:

1) Sell the company for more than what you put into it
2) Take the company public in an IPO

 

[blackangst1]

IPO's are almost always just a small percentage of the company's value. I'm sure there is pressure from many of the investors for them to go public. If I was Zuckerberg I'd want to take some money off the table ASAP just because it's easier to sleep at night without all your assets tied up in one company.

And expected valuation is $100B and generates $4B in advertising revenue...

 

[Doppel]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/facebook-ipo-because-time-its-different

ahahaha

Looking at eight of the larger and more media-promoted IPOs of the last year or two (GRPN, ZNGA, LNKD, P, YOKU, DANG, AWAY, and FFN) we find, aside from the potential for an average 50% pop from the lucky allocation / untradable IPO price, the man in the street that bought the IPO in the market on Day 1 now faces an average loss of 54% with incredibly only 1 of the 8 names (ZNGA) still holding on to gains (+11%) having managed to rally 15% in the last week.

Does anybody REALLY think Facebook is worth half of Google? Because that's what this IPO is pretending.

 

[MrColin]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/facebook-ipo-because-time-its-different

ahahaha



Does anybody REALLY think Facebook is worth half of Google? Because that's what this IPO is pretending.

That actually sounds plausible, except there are fewer substitutes for some google's services. Facebook could go myspace/friendster next month.

 

[blackangst1]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/facebook-ipo-because-time-its-different

ahahaha



Does anybody REALLY think Facebook is worth half of Google? Because that's what this IPO is pretending.

It very well could be. Facebook is slowly aiming to be the one-stop shopping portal to the internet. Remember AOL back in the day? You got your own customized welcome page with outbound links to everything you want. Thats where FB is heading. And theyre doing a pretty good job. Its estimated theyll hit 800 million users by fall...thats 1-7 people on the planet! Of course Google enjoys plenty of traffic. Alot of people say its a glorified myspace or friendster, when in reality, FB has way more content and options.

I dunno. It could tank, of course. As your link shows, of the biggest 8 IPOS last year, only one (Zynga) is now in the black. *shrug* we'll see.