Facebook Reportedly Filing $5 Billion IPO Today 268
hypnosec writes "Today is the day when Facebook may be submitting all required paperwork to regulators for its $5 billion initial public offering. According to the source close to the deal, Facebook has selected Morgan Stanley along with four others — Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Barclay's Capital to handle this IPO. Morgan Stanley will be taking "lead left" role in this supposedly biggest IPO from Silicon Valley. According to International Financing Review, the preliminary target of $5 billion will be increased by many folds in coming few months as a response to the demands of investors. Sources close to this matter disclosed that this might turn out to be defining moment for current web investments. The deal might rise to $10 billion which eventually will make Facebook a social networking empire valued between $75 billion to $100 billion. In fact, $75 billion is definitely an undervaluation compared to previous expectations."
Re:How do the investors get paid? (Score:2, Informative)
It's an IPO. That's kind of the point of it. It's where the company's owners make a killing off of all the suckers who think they can somehow get in on "The Next Big Thing(tm)".
Re:How do the investors get paid? (Score:5, Informative)
I guess I'm sort of stumped at the "business opportunity" offered here. At a guess, Z and 499 other shareholders are going to come out of this with a wad of cash and everyone else will be holding a deflated balloon in a few years....
Well, you see, according to the largest private bank in the world, Goldman Sachs, that's precisely how Wall Street is 'supposed' to work. [rollingstone.com]
Your logic and reasoning abilities have no place amongst the powers that be.
Google opened at $98 a share... (Score:5, Informative)
If I recall, Google was almost $100 a share when it IPO'ed and I thought that was way too much. So I did not buy, because I couldn't figure out how they were going to sustain that.
Well, I was quite wrong because Google went up to $200 then $300, then $400 and has been at something around $500 a share for the last 6 or 7 years. Crazy.
So, I don't know what to think about Facecrook. On one hand, I find the company utterly despicable. On the other hand, companies that are utterly despicable tend to go up in value -- a lot.
They are going to be the top dog in social media for at least the next 5 years, which is enough time to buy some shares, watch them go up in value, and then sell in about 3 or 4 years with no regrets if it goes up further.
Re:Well it's hot and techy, what could go wrong? (Score:5, Informative)
my gmail is my spam/marketing honeypot these days and social networks are used for communication........but then again geeks and techies are usually the last ones to GET trends like this.
LOL.
Uhhh, no. I "got" it. Then threw it back like the steaming turd that it was and still is.
I got a fake Facebook account some time ago to keep connected with younger relatives since it seemed the only way to get their attention was to play Mafia Wars or place a message sign on their farm in Farmville. Being a geek and techie, I saw Facebook for what it really was:
1) A huge personal data sink where I could put all of my information in one basket to be sold to the highest bidder, analyzed, and then acted upon with absolutely no benefit to me.
2) A marginally effective communication tool. Signal to noise ratio sucked, because much like Twitter, you had a constant stream of information that was barely useful, relevant or interesting. Especially, when there is a huge trend to manipulate you into posting other people's content on your wall for marketing purposes.
3) A gaming platform thinly disguised as a social networking platform where Facebook was constantly fighting to get a real piece of the financial action taking place. Starting their own credit system was basically a coup against Zynga which was valued in the billions initially because of revenue, most of which was illicitly gained through dirty tactics like premium charges on cell phones and other such instances of fraud. One of my younger relatives got hit with a $300 cell phone bill one month and honestly did not know the consequences of wanting some shiny that Zynga was offering.
So, No you are quite wrong. Most of us geeks and techies completely understand the trend that Facebook is. When we disagree, refuse to participate, and quite often make condescending and derisive comments towards other people that don't understand what we see you misinterpret that as us "not getting it".
What I wish is that other people would get what Facebook really is.
Your comment about SPAM and marketing is utter hilarity considering what the Facebook experience was like for me for the short while that I had it. Marketing overload anyone........ I had less SPAM and useless information coming into my junkmail folder at Yahoo, and that is saying something.
Anybody that puts money into this is a sucker. They are just making the payday dreams of the early and special investors come true and then you are holding the bag of shit. Same with Zynga.
Facebook might be hot for awhile, but the real trend is an evolving method of communication. To say that Facebook has the lock on that it is incredibly untrue. So many different projects in the works to satisfy this new kind of communication methodology, and with far better signal to noise ratios too.
At the end of the day Facebook has revenues tied to something that you would be foolish to call "stable". It's damn near whimsical over the long run.
Put your thinking cap on for a second. 75 billion. With a B. How can that possibly be true in reality? We are not talking Exxon here that makes something tangible that we are literally addicted too. This is based off credits and advertising revenue, both of which don't have a strong foundation, and can have a huge swing in profitability and volume.
Facebook and Zynga are incredibly over valued and over hyped. God help everyone who buys into it at the high range.
Re:Watch it grow. (Score:5, Informative)