Facebook to File for IPO Next Week • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

#141

Post by justincormack » Sat, Jan 28, 2012, 11:00 AM UTC

james-fend wrote: post #118

albertsun wrote: post #67

Why is this a link to Mashable when all the reporting work and original information is from the Wall Street Journal? http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020457370457718...

yeah, it only popped up half the time for me when I first saw the news, so I figured I'd post a decent "rewrite" that everyone could access. cheers!

Personally I feel if people like the WSJ want to stay out of the linked web we should just leave them there. We should not encourage "rewrites" either, thats not real journalism.

Re: Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

#142

Post by pwaring » Sat, Jan 28, 2012, 11:23 AM UTC

joelrunyon wrote: post #134

Groupon Zynga Is anyone paying attention? Just because a company has a massive user base, big popularity, and lots of VCs, doesn't mean it has a great business model. Sure,you can buy shares, watch them triple in the first 24 and dump them, but when the dust settles, what really happens? Groupon is trading at $20.04. It IPO'd at $20. Zynga is trading at $10.05. It IPO'd at $10. Good for the VC's, finally getting a re…

It is a daft valuation - for $100bn you could buy the big three quoted supermarkets in the UK (Sainsbury's, Tesco and Morrisons) and control 50% of a market whose main product (food) is a necessity. Or you could do the same in retail banking, again a necessity in the modern world.

Or you could buy Facebook, with $2-3bn in revenue and a big database of users which they haven't really worked out how to monetise yet.

Re: Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

#143

Post by mikeash » Sat, Jan 28, 2012, 4:54 PM UTC

cydonian_monk wrote: post #83

philwelch wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What on earth would Apple do with Facebook? Apple, by virtue of actually making things people want to buy, has massive profit margins compared to Facebook, and can more usefully spend their horde of cash on, say, cornering the market on NAND flash.

To retro-paraphrase your question: "What on Earth would Apple do with NeXT?" Sometimes it's not about the product, but the people. Maybe the current Apple board /really/ wants Zuck to run the show. Best way to do that is to buy FB. I agree with you, though. Apple buying FB would be a not-so-small mistake.

The NeXT acquisition was totally about the product. Apple's product line today is built almost entirely on what NeXT brought to the table.

Re: Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

#144

Post by spitfire » Sat, Jan 28, 2012, 6:33 PM UTC

3pt14159 wrote: post #135

joelrunyon wrote: post #134

Groupon Zynga Is anyone paying attention? Just because a company has a massive user base, big popularity, and lots of VCs, doesn't mean it has a great business model. Sure,you can buy shares, watch them triple in the first 24 and dump them, but when the dust settles, what really happens? Groupon is trading at $20.04. It IPO'd at $20. Zynga is trading at $10.05. It IPO'd at $10. Good for the VC's, finally getting a re…

If that scares you look at sales force 5500 p/e and a 15B valuation. For SaaS software. Insanity. (Disclaimer, I have a vested interest in this stock going down.)

I had never looked at sales forces' P/E before. It's at 7700 right now. Insanity.

Re: Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

#145

Post by hackinthebochs » Sat, Jan 28, 2012, 6:47 PM UTC

yaix wrote: post #136

hackinthebochs wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get why people seem to ignore this. If facebook added internet search to their site they would instantly become the second biggest provider. I would be very surprised if they weren't already working on this.

People go to FB to communicate, they go to G to search. Brands are associated with products. That's why this G+ thing is a bad idea, it totally waters down G's brand in search. FB offers Bing on their site, but still nobody uses that.

I don't think this is true for most people. This has been discussed on HN a few times. While the techie crowd usually has distinct sites for different purposes, this isn't true for most people. Facebook is the only thing a large number of people get on the internet for. Portals work at engaging visitors, it's just a matter of monetizing the eyeballs. Facebook has the engagement locked down, now they just need to monetize the eyeballs.

FB may have Bing search integrated, but its not in any prominent location. I've been on facebook for years and have never seen it, not once. Perhaps its integrated with facebook's people search? The point is, if they put a plain-ol internet search box on each users homepage it will get plenty of use. With the plenthora of data they're generating, internet search can be trojan horsed by way of a history/activity search.