Why is facebook going public?

[Doppel]

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.

I was looking up AOL just yesterday in fact. Amazing that they are still around! There's been no successful portal site really since then for most people, which makes me wonder if anybody wants it. I suppose I could see it being successful if done right, though (though not for me).

 

[blackangst1]

I was looking up AOL just yesterday in fact. Amazing that they are still around! There's been no successful portal site really since then for most people, which makes me wonder if anybody wants it. I suppose I could see it being successful if done right, though (though not for me).

Yah not for me either. But if you look at the user stats for FB...like time logged on, activities done there, etc...its possible a portal may attract the average user.

 

[Darwin333]

Well, specifically it's the 1%ers getting other people's money.

This is the beginning of the end for Facebook.

Its an IPO dumbass. Pretty much the only people that can purchase FB at IPO IS the 1%. Hell, its more like the .01% because I know a lot of 1%ers and not a one of them will be able to get into FB at its IPO.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

Its an IPO dumbass. Pretty much the only people that can purchase FB at IPO IS the 1%. Hell, its more like the .01% because I know a lot of 1%ers and not a one of them will be able to get into FB at its IPO.

Care to expand on that? The requirements to participate in an IPO are no that great. Meet equity requirement, maintain your 5130 and have access to a syndicate brokerage. Why is it limited to the .01%?

 

[Capt Caveman]

Its an IPO dumbass. Pretty much the only people that can purchase FB at IPO IS the 1%. Hell, its more like the .01% because I know a lot of 1%ers and not a one of them will be able to get into FB at its IPO.

If you have good timing, you can get in right after it starts trading. I was able to buy Visa at $45/share minutes after it's IPO of $44. Now, it's over $100 and pays a quarterly dividend. I'm a happy camper.

 

[Darwin333]

Care to expand on that? The requirements to participate in an IPO are no that great. Meet equity requirement, maintain your 5130 and have access to a syndicate brokerage. Why is it limited to the .01%?

buy a single share of FB at IPO and provide proof that you purchased it and I will cover any and all costs associated with both the buying and selling of it.

The banks who put together the IPO get to say who gets first dibs on the stock and that is generally their very large customers not peons like you and me. And since this is a relatively small offering relative to their claimed value, I would wager that at the very least 90% of the shares are "sold" before they actually go on sale.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

buy a single share of FB at IPO and provide proof that you purchased it and I will cover any and all costs associated with both the buying and selling of it.

The banks who put together the IPO get to say who gets first dibs on the stock and that is generally their very large customers not peons like you and me. And since this is a relatively small offering relative to their claimed value, I would wager that at the very least 90% of the shares are "sold" before they actually go on sale.

Can't. I'm a restricted person. Broker. NASD Rule 2790 blows.

Edit: to add, good luck ever being able to buy just one share of an IPO. won't happen.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Status update: Facebook to go public, raise $5B

The documents show, as expected, that Facebook is thriving. The company earned $668 million on revenue of $3.7 billion last year, according to the filing. Both figures nearly doubled from 2010.

 

[conehead433]

Why investing in FB IPO is a losing proposition -

People don't go on Facebook to buy anything. They are there to communicate with their friends, family, maybe some strangers, and for some, to play some stupid games. Facebook makes some money on the games that some are willing to spend money on. Otherwise FB generates revenue from advertisers and the website has basically become little more than a platform for corporate Spam. They probably are already at the saturation point for advertising, so increasing their revenues yearly is not likely. Additionally, when these same advertisers realize that FB advertising is not driving up their revenues, they will be leaving in droves. Based on their actual net income, FB, after it's IPO will become the most over valued company in the world. This IPO is for FB employees. They will get rich by cashing out, and five years from now people will be saying, "You remember that dumb website called Facebook?".

 

[sportage]

I've seen enough damn pictures of your ugly kids.
Where is the <F-off> botton?

 

[ShawnD1]

I've seen enough damn pictures of your ugly kids.
Where is the <F-off> botton?

Remember this parody site?
http://youropenbook.org/

Someone should make one called PedoBook. Just take public pictures of children on facebook and mirror them on the parody site. As soon as it hits the news, parents would be all OMG WTF and change their privacy settings.


That openbook site is getting better. I searched for nigg** and most of the results are from black people this time. That's an improvement. Then theres:

" Jerry Van Ness ITS ****** MONTH WE NEED JAMES EARAL RAY DAY OR HANK WILLIAMS MONTH FOR PPL THAT DESERVE IT Y DO ******S GET A HOLE FUCKN MONTH JUST COUSE THEY CUT MY GRAND PAPPIES WOOD WATERD HIS HOURSE AN PICKD HIS COTTON FUCK THEY CAME TO OVER ONA BOAT FUCK THAT"
45 minutes ago

 

[Dulanic]

PE 125 is horrible. That means you buy $125 of shares and the profit at that time would be $1. That's less than people make by keeping their money in something like an ING Direct savings account.

Look up the numbers for a different company. One that you know is successful to some degree. How about Coke:
http://www.google.com/finance?q=coca+cola
PE ratio of 12.41, so that's about 8%. Roughly 10x better than Facebook. I hope Zucker bails on FB while the company value is still high.

And then some say FB is bigger than google... who has a P/E if 19.25.... vs facebooks 125 lol... fools and their money.

 

[ichy]

Because the U.S. 1%ers need even more money of course silly.

Good thing nobody is forced to invest a penny in Facebook.

 

[Capt Caveman]

And then some say FB is bigger than google... who has a P/E if 19.25.... vs facebooks 125 lol... fools and their money.

Please don't use numbers from ShawnD1, they're incorrect. Google's P/E when they went public was 80. FB's will be lower.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Why investing in FB IPO is a losing proposition -

People don't go on Facebook to buy anything. They are there to communicate with their friends, family, maybe some strangers, and for some, to play some stupid games. Facebook makes some money on the games that some are willing to spend money on. Otherwise FB generates revenue from advertisers and the website has basically become little more than a platform for corporate Spam. They probably are already at the saturation point for advertising, so increasing their revenues yearly is not likely. Additionally, when these same advertisers realize that FB advertising is not driving up their revenues, they will be leaving in droves. Based on their actual net income, FB, after it's IPO will become the most over valued company in the world. This IPO is for FB employees. They will get rich by cashing out, and five years from now people will be saying, "You remember that dumb website called Facebook?".

FB generates revenue from more than just advertising. Do a little research.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

FB generates revenue from more than just advertising. Do a little research.

While that is true, about 85% is ad revenue and I'd be inclined to agree that there's not much more room.

 

[blackangst1]

Its an IPO dumbass. Pretty much the only people that can purchase FB at IPO IS the 1%. Hell, its more like the .01% because I know a lot of 1%ers and not a one of them will be able to get into FB at its IPO.

I called Morgan Stanley Monday to ask the requirements to buy into the IPO. I was told in order to qualify for the IOI you must 1. have at least $1million at Morgan Stanley under management, and 2. commit to a minimum $100,000 investment in FB.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

I called Morgan Stanley Monday to ask the requirements to buy into the IPO. I was told in order to qualify for the IOI you must 1. have at least $1million at Morgan Stanley under management, and 2. commit to a minimum $100,000 investment in FB.

You can also go through discount brokerage house. During the GRPN, ZNGA IPOs, for example, I know of a few who were taking indications of interest and their requirements are $50,000 minimum equity, current (within a year) 5130 and 5131 and that's it.

Still waiting on word if we will be a syndicate member as well.

 

[blackangst1]

You can also go through discount brokerage house. During the GRPN IPO, for example, I know of a few who were taking indications of interest and their requirements are $50,000 minimum equity, current (within a year) 5130 and 5131 and that's it.

Still waiting on word if we will be a syndicate member as well.

Well, perhaps. Last I heard, the big discount brokerage houses...TD Ameritrade and Schwab...have said theyre not offering, and Fidelity hasnt commented. We'll see how it fleshes out though.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

Well, perhaps. Last I heard, the big discount brokerage houses...TD Ameritrade and Schwab...have said theyre not offering, and Fidelity hasnt commented. We'll see how it fleshes out though.

I can guarantee one them had no official word as of the end of day yesterday. And since im headed to Vegas for the Super Bowl weekend tonight i havent even bothered to check in today.

 

[Doppel]

FB will have to change its model significantly if it wants to be taken seriously long term at that theoretical market cap. Right now it has 800M people and earnings of $700M, right? It's surely seeing growth slow in mature markets, so to keep growing like crazy it's got to look at the rest of the world. Well, with a population of 7B even if everybody used facebook and it's user to earning ratio was the same it's only making $6B/year. But, many of the world's population has no real internet access and many who do have no intention of using facebook. I know many people who either have cancelled their accounts or simply never, ever want one (at least they say that).

I guess there are always new and inventive ways to sell your customers' date for money, though, and Zuckerberg certainly won't shy from that.