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Posts Tagged ‘facebook ipo’

Alternative Ways To Invest In Facebook

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here is some interesting ideas from SF Chronicle.

“Founded in February 2004, Facebook, Inc., the company behind the social networking website of the same name, is a privately held company in Palo Alto, California. While you may think that only qualified investors who have a net worth of at least $1 million have an opportunity to buy private company shares, investing in companies and funds that are closely aligned with and/or associates of Facebook, is actually a viable option.

The Nielsen Company
As said by John Burbank, CEO of The Nielsen Company (online division), a successful research marketing business that offers trade information to global marketers, “Facebook is an increasingly vital link between consumers and brands.”

Thus, it was only natural for the two companies to form a strategic alliance in order to determine important statistics to meet business goals, such as increasing Facebook’s advertising profits.

While Nielsen is privately held, contact their Investor Relations team, easily accessible on their site, for information on their 2009 investment results and additional information.

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)
Not only does Microsoft have a 1.6% stake in Facebook ($240 million), they have also extended their relationship globally and are Facebook’s current ad-serving partner, having the right to sell advertising directly on Facebook, while providing full access to Bing search characteristics.

Bing’s search engine provides a substitute for Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) after Microsoft beat out Google to claim a stake in Facebook. According to Bing General Manager Jon Tinter, “Bing will continue to exclusively power the web search results on Facebook.” This partnership continues to aid in Facebook’s traffic growth.

Additionally, since the majority of Microsoft’s business is the development and sale of unrelated software products, if Facebook’s market value results in a drastic change, it would have only a modest impact on Microsoft’s share price. Investing in Microsoft shares might be a safe option to play.

Retail Companies
Retail companies have successfully marketed and advertised through Facebook. According to a 2008 Rosetta study, 59% of 100 popular retailers developed Facebook pages to advertise their brands. Facebook pages bring customers that may not have been aware of the companies without it. Additionally, it is easy to update, appears in search engines, and accepts live feeds from blog pages.

Well-reputed retail companies that use Facebook to advertise and also have public stock options include Saks Fifth Avenue (NYSE: SKS), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), J.Crew (NYSE: JCG), Gymboree (Nasdaq: GYMB), Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) and many others. (What people buy and where they shop can provide valuable information about the economy. Lear more in Using Consumer Spending As A Market Indicator.)

SharesPost
SharesPost is a private equity market; it shows available company stock and completed deals, gives estimates on the worth of private companies, spots which companies are backed by venture capital, and promotes trading.

Chief Executive Greg Brogger says SharesPost “…facilitat[es] the sale of equities in companies that have not been able to unlock their stock value because the initial public offering (IPO) market has virtually shut down.” SharesPost boasts private shares and currently values Facebook at almost $12 billion.

Invest in Facebook’s Competitors
Although Facebook is reportedly the number one social media service, competition still exists presently and possibly in the future. Similar companies, such as Myspace.com, are publicly owned.

Buying a share in a competitor follows the logic that an increase in the social media market could quite potentially raise the market for all competitors in the industry. When investing in social media, pick those with a known record of increasing sales and profit.

Look Out for a Facebook IPO
There is the possibility that Facebook might have a future IPO, which would make it one of the biggest in recent memory. The current value of Facebook has been estimated at $11.5 billion, but if it goes public, the company is projected to be worth more than twice that. As Zuckerberg told The Wall Street Journal: “We’re going to go public eventually, because that’s the contract that we have with our investors and our employees.”

Some say Facebook’s postponement of an IPO helps to evade the associated hassles, including investor analysts, shareholders and stakeholders, and the media. But Facebook does not need the money. According to Zuckerberg, “if you don’t need that capital, then all the pressures are different, and the motivations [to go public] are not there in the same way.””
Read more here.

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Do Companies Like Facebook Still Need To Go Public?

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, tagged , , , , , , , on March 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here is an article from The Big Money.

“That’s not the frame of this insightful Wall Street Journal story, but it could be. Journal reporter Ben Worthen flags the widening gap between cash-rich tech companies—Cisco (CSCO), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), and Oracle (ORCL)—and everybody else. By keeping tens of billions of cash on their balance sheets, Worthen writes, “these companies can afford to take risks that smaller companies can’t at a time when the economy remains fragile.”

This notion is so far outside of conventional wisdom that it can’t even get in the same room. For decades we’ve been told that the nimble startup would run circles around the corporate dinosaur. But Worthen’s piece is a great reminder that a crucial way for companies to obtain and maintain their advantage in rapidly developing fields is through acquisition. And in order to make the right acquisitions, you need currency (cash is best, but stock is also a valid currency under the right conditions).

This issue is too often ignored in discussions of a Facebook IPO, which the company’s investors have publicly ruled out for 2010. There is a line of thinking that says that Facebook is already flush with cash, and since it is now cash-flow positive, it ought to be able to stay that way. Other tech startups, too, argue that open-source technology and cloud computing keep their costs substantially lower than those of their ‘90s counterparts and therefore they don’t need to go public.”

Read the complete article here.

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Facebook, GM lead 2010 IPO candidates

Posted in boic, tagged , , , , , , on January 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here is an article from CNN Money.

“The stars may very well align for the IPO market in 2010. Literally.

Following one of the worst years in recent memory, public offerings are expected to rebound nicely this year, with potentially much of the action centered around several high-profile companies.

Embattled automaker General Motors, for example, has hinted since last summer that it could once again become a publicly-traded company by year’s end.

Private equity giants Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Apollo Global Management, both of which missed entering the market at the peak of the buyout boom, have both mentioned as possible entries in 2010 recently.

And the IPO rumor mill has been working overtime since social networking giant Facebook introduced a dual-class stock structure in November, a move that often times has preceded a public offering. Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) did the same thing before it went public in 2004.

“I don’t think it is a matter of if[Facebook] can or cannot, it is a matter if they want to,” notes finance author Tom Taulli, who has written extensively about the IPO market.

If Facebook, GM and other brand-name firms decide to enter the public markets, that could help push the number of U.S. offerings far beyond 2009 levels. Last year, just 63 companies went public as investors avoided wading into the market chaos that defined the first half of last year.

Those that did brave the turmoil included a rather strange group of bedfellows –including a Chinese online gaming firm, a company developing lithium-ion batteries for cars and nearly two dozen companies that were backed by private equity firms.

This year though, experts are betting that the IPO market will largely be dominated once again by companies that have been bankrolled by venture capital investors. These companies are typically younger firms as opposed to the mature companies that private equity companies often buy.

During the final months of 2009, 16 venture-backed firms filed to go public, according to Renaissance Capital, a Greenwich, Conn.-based investment firm specializing in IPOs, including drugmaker Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and solar panel producer Solyndra.

With that in mind, Linda Killian, a portfolio manager of the IPO Plus Aftermarket Fund at Renaissance Capital, said that more growth companies are likely to be in this year’s crop of IPOs.

And in the growth company category, there is no industry more buzzed about than social networking.

In addition to Facebook, social networking hotshots Twitter, LinkedIn and Zynga have all been rumored as possible IPO candidates.

Experts tend to agree that it is only a matter of time before many of these firms start considering acquisitions however. And with publicly traded stock, that would certainly give them the currency to do so.

John Fitzgibbon, founder and publisher at IPOScoop.com, said if one social networking company goes public and does well, then conditions would be ripe for the rest to follow.

“You need the trailblazer,” he said. “If Facebook goes into the pipeline, you will probably see more of its competitors start there.”

Read the full article here.

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Good News And Bad News On IPO Front

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 10, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is some good insights from Chris O´brien at SiliconBeat.

“This morning my inbox contained the latest report from Renaissance Capital. It has some hopeful news about IPOs, but not necessarily for Silicon Valley.

First, the good news: ”After an uptick in filing activity, there are 67 companies in the active IPO pipeline, up from 29 in March 2009.”

As far as Silicon Valley is concerned, that’s about as far as the good news goes. Now, here’s the bad news.

According to Renaissance:

“Today, the tech, healthcare and retail growth stories that have driven past market revivals have been conspicuously absent from the latest wave of  IPO hopefuls.  This makes sense, given the historic consumer shut-down and the anti-business and investment rhetoric emanating from Washington.  In their place, there is a pool of unusual candidates shaped by an era of cheap credit and  the unprecedented mortgage crisis that followed.  At least for the near term, it appears that the IPO market will be dominated by opportunistic investment vehicles and businesses from the mid-decade buyout bubble.”

And his post concludes:

Currently, there are seven venture-backed companies in the IPO pipeline. Could there be more? Renaissance gives a round up of likely suspects:

“Besides the social networking giants Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, there have been several other rumored IPO candidates from the VC community as the market began to recover in early March.  Near-term, we expect the majority of new venture-backed IPO filings to come from the technology and alternative energy sectors.  Potential IPO prospects from each of these industries include online games company Zynga, ethernet network equipment provider Force10 and property & casualty software maker Guidewire in the technology sector, and smart grid company Silver Spring, solar panel maker Solyndra and electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors in alternative energy.”

Read the full article here.

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Is the U.S. Market Again Ripe for IPOs?

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Investments, Market research, Social Networks, Strategy, Technology, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is an intresting article from Money morning.

“Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s (NYSE: GS) initial public offerings (IPO) guru Tom Tuft has joined Bruce Wasserstein’s Lazard Ltd. (NYSE: LAZ) as chairman of Global Capital Markets Advisory and vice-chairman of its U.S. investment banking, in what could be a sign that the market for IPOs is thawing.

Tuft, a 33-year Goldman vet who co-founded its equity capital markets business in 1985 and became its chairman in 2004, was involved in several high-profile IPOs, including those of The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL) and RJR Nabisco Inc. He also advised Lazard on its own IPO in 2005.

A slowdown in mergers and acquisitions has prompted Lazard to expand its equity capital markets and restructuring operations, working on nine of the top 10 bankruptcies this year, Bloomberg News reported. Capital raised by IPOs in the first half of this year was $11.4 billion, down 85% from the same period last year according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“There is demand for companies to come public,” David Menlow, president of IPOFinancial.com told Bloomberg. “The fact that we haven’t seen that many is not an indication that companies are not out there ready to come public.”

The article continues.

The “Silicon Valley Six”

“An informal poll of venture capitalists and others conducted by Reuters yielded six successful companies with revenue of $100 million or more in Silicon Valley that are ripe for acquisition or an IPO, excluding social networking sensations Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. The news service dubbed the companies the “Silicon Valley Six,” which were chosen out of 34 citied in sectors ranging from alternative energy to video games.

The top four companies found were social network LinkedIn Corp., solar panel maker Solyndra Inc., smart grid company Silver Spring Networks and Zynga Inc., which develops games that run on social networks like Facebook or New Corp.’s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace.

The other two are Guidewire, which develops software for property and casualty companies, and LiveOps, which operates call centers from contractors that work from their homes.

“They are exciting because they…demonstrate what is possible with venture capital,” Sharon Wienbar, managing director of Scale Venture Partners told Reuters. “These are companies that have proven a new, attractive business model that works big in spaces.”

Venture capitalists’ rule of thumb for declaring a company ripe for an IPO is that a company must have  $100 million in sales and have a capitalization of about $1 billion in order to have enough money to meet the reporting structures of the Sarbanes-Oxley act.

“The market is in the early stages of being back,” LiveOps Chief Executive Officer Maynard Webb said. “The market is ripe and open today for great companies.”

While not mentioned in Reuters’ “Silicon Valley Six,” one private company that’s making waves in Silicon Valley is PopCap Games Inc., which publishes and develops easy-to-play, accessible “casual” video games.”

Read the full article here.

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