Facebook Celebrates 8th Birthday by Filing for IPO
February 1, 2012 by admin · Comments Off
The day investors and tech watchers have been waiting for is here: Facebook filed its IPO today, which happens to be its eighth birthday. Its anticipated valuation range is $75 billion to $100 billion, but in the papers submitted with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the wildly popular company states that it hopes its IPO will net $5 billion. Everyone is expecting Facebook’s stock market début to be record-setting. As of this moment, the IPO is expected to occur in May.
The rumor had been circulating that some Facebook shares would be made available to small investors, but the filing gives no indication of preparations for such a proceeding, alas. Working at Facebook are 3,200 individuals, and by the Los Angeles Times’ account, roughly one-third of them are on track to becoming newly minted millionaires.
The filing included a letter written by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO and co-founder, and in context of where they appear, and the enormity of the wealth that is about to be hoisted onto the company and those responsible for it, some of Zuckerberg’s words rest enigmatic. He writes: “We don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services,” and adds, “I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits.”
All eyes are on Facebook: in the picture above, Mark Zuckerberg smiles along with famed journalist Charlie Rose and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO, who’s already being called a viable future presidential candidate.
Read More:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fiw-facebookipo-web-20120201,0,1236022.story
Facebook’s IPO Not Until Late 2012?
September 16, 2011 by admin · Comments Off
This week the Financial Times reported that Facebook’s will not have its initial public offering until late 2012. The FT cited sources close to the company in the report for the scoop, but all that was obtained from Larry Yu, Facebook’s spokesperson, was: “As is our typical practice, we just don’t get into speculation about an IPO.”
Although there are apparently some 200 companies sitting on their IPO start time because of the uncertain market, it seems that what’s prompting the delay is CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s desire to keep his team “focus[ed] on developing products” instead of on “collecting an IPO payout.”
Financial watchers expect there to be a “frenzy” like the one last seen when Google went public in 2004.The private markets are currently giving Facebook a valuation that hovers at $80 billion and investors are ready to buy Facebook shares, clearly. Even without any help from the public markets, Facebook was able to come up with $1 billion.
This January Facebook’s number of shareholders went beyond 500, which is a threshold set by the Securities and Exchange Commission: once that number is passed, companies must open up financial results within a short, specified timeframe. Previous calculations had set Facebook’s IPO date for April 2012. Seems investors will have to wait a bit longer.
Read More:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/2b842146-dec3-11e0-a228-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1XybpqE00
LinkedIn Makes Bank
May 23, 2011 by admin · Comments Off
Stock market debutante LinkedIn was the belle of the ball on Thursday. LinkedIn kicked off its first day as a publicly traded company and made a big splash — so much so that the markets rallied and stirred in ways that harked back to the tech boom of the 90s. Those days are hardly back but LinkedIn’s early and promising success is giving investors something to feel good about, and they’re also thinking of LinkedIn’s social networking peers about to take their own plunge into the market waters. The IPOs of Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, and Zynga are all expected to arrive very soon — perhaps more than a couple of those will get here before Christmas.
Thursday, closing time at the New York Stock Exchange saw LinkedIn’s shares being valued at $94.25. Their offering price was $45 and the day’s high was $122.70. It was an excellent first day that saw the stock market entrance of the first big-name, American social media company. $9 billion is the figure that most currently represents the company’s valuation.
Although subdued controversy about initial under-pricing of shares has ensued, here is a choice statement from Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn’s chief executive: “We were able to find investors who understood our story and understood our desire to invest in our platform.” Correct, sir!
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Promising Stock Market Debut for Chinese Social Media Fixture RenRen
May 10, 2011 by admin · Comments Off
The U.S. has just witnessed the first IPO of a social media group — RenRen Inc. If ranked according to page views, then RenRen is the most important Chinese social network and today it made its grand debut on the New York Stock Exchange. Its underwriters were Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley. The company is based in Beijing but it is not actually listed in China. RenRen’s initial price per share was $14; at closing, its price stood at $18. 01 though earlier in the day the number reached $24. The $18.01 figure comprises a nearly 30 percent increase (28.6%) in value.
RenRen’s market value is approximately $7.5 billion and its net revenues from last year tallied $76.5m. By comparison, Facebook’s market value is estimated to be $65 billion.
Of China’s 1.3 billion people, 117 million use RenRen. Initially conceived as a Facebook copy, RenRen now features games and daily deals. Almost no one in the country has access to Twitter, Facebook, or Youtube because of issues related to the Chinese government’s stance on censoring.
In addition to being the first social media IPO, RenRen’s NY debut represents the largest offering from the Chinese tech sector on the New York Stock Exchange.
Read More
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/05/renren-china-social-networking.html
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c08d1072-764f-11e0-b4f7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1LW5LwFjX
