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Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

mashable.com

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Re: Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

#31

Post by andrewhillman »

nchuhoai wrote: post #2

Just out of curiosity, why is Facebook doing this? I'm unfortunately not very knowledgeable on the field of IPOs, but aren't IPOs usually just needed to raise money? I always thought Facebook is in a position where it does not need to raise money, since it gets sufficient revenue, and being public has its own disadvantages?

FB is going public because they have a lot of investors/early employees who want liquidity. I think FB is going to file for IPO the day after they hit 1 Billion "active" users, which is very likely to be soon. That would be some impressive news to piggy-back on an IPO announcement.

Re: Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

#32

Post by ryanklee »

RuggeroAltair wrote: post #28

Well, honestly I think that buying Facebook shares right now is a high risk move. While it is possible maybe to forecast some ups and downs in the immediate following days, if the evaluation actually goes to 100 billions it'd look scary to me. I'm not saying that Facebook is dying or that it's gonna die anytime soon, but I am not able to foresee any significant growth. The article compared, with sort of negative term…

Some decent reasons here along those lines to be hesitant about the IPO

http://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2012/01/18/three-reasons-to-a...

Re: Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

#33

Post by samstave »

RuggeroAltair wrote: post #28

Well, honestly I think that buying Facebook shares right now is a high risk move. While it is possible maybe to forecast some ups and downs in the immediate following days, if the evaluation actually goes to 100 billions it'd look scary to me. I'm not saying that Facebook is dying or that it's gonna die anytime soon, but I am not able to foresee any significant growth. The article compared, with sort of negative term…

My (sure to be wrong) Facebook predictions:

* The Facebook Phone

* The Facebook Netbook

* Major user datamining product sales to global governments

* Acquiring binge (gaming, education (I think they will go for Khan Academy)

* video hosting

* Their own voip platform

Facebook still has a lot of room to innovate, not that they would necessarily be successful in each iteration. But I would say that the number one thing FB could do right now to have a major impact is to create an education platform.

If their nearly billion users can all take education throgh the platform that would be very game changing. Allow users to sign up for classes, watch them, participate on them and collaborate with other students directly through facebook - plus have their progress and status tracked and gamefied then we could see real growth.

As facebook could start absorbing every person on the planet that is newly born.

Seriously, if facebook didnt buy KhanAcademy and integrate it for this reason, then I would say they lack vision and are simply the worlds most bloated PHP website.

Re: Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

#34

Post by philwelch »

bitsweet wrote: post #8

What would the world look like if Facebook IPOs and Apple immediately buys them out with their horde of cash?

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.

Re: Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

#35

Post by samstave »

zecho wrote: post #30
samstave wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is going o be way too much FB worship in the near future. I expect that this will be hyped to high hell, and with the insidious Goldman Sachs running the IPO - I expect their value to be enourmous - regardless of their actual financials.

Wall Street Journal says it's likely going to be Morgan Stanley leading the IPO.

Ah, thanks - I thought it was previously stated that GS was running it - Maybe that was due to the GS leading the most recent investment channel they had... I don't recall the details of how that was setup.

Re: Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

#36

Post by encoderer »

smanek wrote: post #6
nchuhoai wrote: post #2

Just out of curiosity, why is Facebook doing this? I'm unfortunately not very knowledgeable on the field of IPOs, but aren't IPOs usually just needed to raise money? I always thought Facebook is in a position where it does not need to raise money, since it gets sufficient revenue, and being public has its own disadvantages?

The SEC requires private companies that have more than 500 shareholders to file basically the same paperwork/disclosures that a public company has to. FB is probably nearing (or over) the 500 shareholder limit. Since they are going to go through most of the downside involved with an IPO anyways, they might as well get some cash too. Plus, share/option holders (employees, investors, etc) are probably clamoring for liq…

Facebook has skirted this for a year now. They sold a bloc of shares to, IIRC, Goldman Sachs who runs it like a private equity fund, selling shares of the fund to as many of its rich clients as possible.

In other words, they NAT'ed the shares.

Re: Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

#37

Post by rplnt »

RuggeroAltair wrote: post #28

Well, honestly I think that buying Facebook shares right now is a high risk move. While it is possible maybe to forecast some ups and downs in the immediate following days, if the evaluation actually goes to 100 billions it'd look scary to me. I'm not saying that Facebook is dying or that it's gonna die anytime soon, but I am not able to foresee any significant growth. The article compared, with sort of negative term…

> Wall Street made a mistake with Google, since now their shares now are worth 5 times as much as they were at the opening.

August 2004:

Gold $405

Google $85/share (thought it was $100/share, huh)

Now:

Gold $1735

Google $576/share

1735/405 ~= 4.27

85*4.27 ~= 364

So no, Google's shares are not worth 5 times more. They value went up some 50% in six years, which is great but nothing scary.

Re: Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

#38

Post by arturnt »

RuggeroAltair wrote: post #28

Well, honestly I think that buying Facebook shares right now is a high risk move. While it is possible maybe to forecast some ups and downs in the immediate following days, if the evaluation actually goes to 100 billions it'd look scary to me. I'm not saying that Facebook is dying or that it's gonna die anytime soon, but I am not able to foresee any significant growth. The article compared, with sort of negative term…

When Google went IPO their valuation hovered around 30B, compare that to Facebooks 3 times that, now nearing 90-100B in the private markets. Companies are staying the private markets a lot longer so by the time they hit the public market they are already overvalued/valued appropriately. I doubt Facebook will see exponential growth initially until they have healthier profit numbers. Unless a lot of amateur investors buy it because they saw The Social Network.

Re: Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

#39

Post by [deleted] »

pedalpete wrote: post #3
nchuhoai wrote: post #2

Just out of curiosity, why is Facebook doing this? I'm unfortunately not very knowledgeable on the field of IPOs, but aren't IPOs usually just needed to raise money? I always thought Facebook is in a position where it does not need to raise money, since it gets sufficient revenue, and being public has its own disadvantages?

I'm no expert, but I believe that by issuing common stock traded in a public exchange, employees and current common stock holders will be more easily able to sell their stocks, thereby making these people more liquid. It could have advantages in hiring, where now, people can actually realize the value by selling their options/stock.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook to File for IPO Next Week

#40

Post by pepdek »

samstave wrote: post #33
RuggeroAltair wrote: post #28

Well, honestly I think that buying Facebook shares right now is a high risk move. While it is possible maybe to forecast some ups and downs in the immediate following days, if the evaluation actually goes to 100 billions it'd look scary to me. I'm not saying that Facebook is dying or that it's gonna die anytime soon, but I am not able to foresee any significant growth. The article compared, with sort of negative term…

My (sure to be wrong) Facebook predictions: * The Facebook Phone * The Facebook Netbook * Major user datamining product sales to global governments * Acquiring binge (gaming, education (I think they will go for Khan Academy) * video hosting * Their own voip platform Facebook still has a lot of room to innovate, not that they would necessarily be successful in each iteration. But I would say that the number one thing…

I'd like to add to your list of Facebook products. * Facebook Search Engine.
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