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Posts Tagged ‘facebook ipo’

Good news are starting to come across from market indicators. The economy is slowly starting to turn its heavy pessimism to a optimistic, normal belief of opportunity. Looking at these indicators on IPO filings, there are plenaty of opportunities on the horizon.

Here ar some good news posted by Wall Street Journal.

“The pace of new stock offerings perked up this spring after a cold winter, but the market for new issues still has a long way to go before a real recovery.

The story was the same in every corner of the world. At best, there was a pickup in issuance in the second quarter of 2009 from the first quarter, but there was nowhere near the levels of a year earlier.

World-wide, 78 companies raised $10.6 billion in initial public offerings of stock in the second quarter, up from 54 deals that raised just $1.3 billion in the first three months of 2009, according to data from Dealogic, which tracks new issues. But in the second quarter of 2008, 243 new public companies sold $33.4 billion of shares, by Dealogic’s count. All data exclude real-estate investment trusts and empty shell companies known as special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs.

If comparisons with last year aren’t sobering enough, consider this: In the second quarter of 2007, 469 companies raised a total of $88.2 billion — six times the number and more than eight times the dollar volume of the latest three months.

“In terms of volume of issuance, let’s face it, we’re still in the very early innings of recovery,” says Kevin Willsey, head of equity capital markets for the Americas at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

U.S. pricings in the latest quarter totaled 10, valued at $1.3 billion, compared with 11 deals that raised $4.2 billion in the 2008 period. Latin America and India each had one IPO for the second quarter, while Russia and Australia had none.

The largest offering in the world during the second quarter was the $4.27 billion raised on the Bovespa stock exchange by VisaNet, the Brazilian affiliate of credit-card network Visa Inc.

China had 13 IPOs in the second quarter that raised a combined $2.9 billion, compared with 20 that raised $2.3 billion a year ago; Europe had 10 deals totaling just $209 million, compared with 79 that raised $12.1 billion.

Still, bankers appear more optimistic now about the IPO market than at any time since last fall, with many saying there could be a stronger pickup in issuance in the second part of this year.

U.S. IPOs have performed well on their debuts this year. The May offering of OpenTable Inc. generated the best first-day performance since late 2007, before the stock-market meltdown. The company, which raised $60 million in its offering, rose 59% on its first day of trading.

The outlook for the IPO market depends on whether there are nasty surprises in second-quarter earnings reports, which will start arriving by the middle of this month, stable prices in the broader stock market and continued hopes for economic recovery.”

In this articl, Lynn cowan closes by saying:

“More deals later in the year would play into historical buying patterns by large institutions such as mutual funds and hedge funds, says Joe Castle, head of U.S. equities syndicate at Barclays Capital. “Fall is a popular time to buy IPOs,” he says, “because it positions portfolios with high-growth companies for the following calendar year and boosts performance for the current year if they trade well initially.”

Despite glimmers of hope in some areas of the world, like the U.S., bankers and investors alike are aware things could suddenly take a turn for the worse.

“We don’t see firms storming the gates to launch into the IPO market right now,” says David DiPietro, president of boutique investment bank Signal Hill in Baltimore. “We probably need to see another quarter of solid earnings from a broad base of companies.”

To read the full article, click here.

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As Facebook secured some investments earlier this year, and invested it towards international growth, the latest news spark renewed IPO rumors.

Of course, no one knows, but the hiring of a CFO from a larger corporation is nothing you do unless you have greater plans. First and foremost, it costs you a bunch of money, secondly, the demands this person has on you by his experience will force the structure needed upon you.

The biggest challenge remains though – to create profitability.

Here is a quoted article from BusinessWeek.

“In April, when Facebook announced the departure of Chief Financial Officer Gideon Yu, the social network said it would look for a replacement “with public company experience.” Facebook found what it was seeking in David Ebersman, a 15-year veteran of biotech pioneer Genentech (DNA).

“David [Ebersman] worked at one of the most innovative and respected [companies] in the world, so he brings a lot to the table when it comes to our efforts to build a lasting, important company,” Facebook spokesman Larry Yu says of the appointment, announced on June 29.

Ebersman’s appointment keeps alive speculation over whether and how soon the world’s biggest social network is headed for an initial public share sale. “We have no plans to go public,” says spokesman Larry Yu. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was quoted in May saying an IPO remains “a few years out.”

Ebersman, 38, served as Genentech’s CFO for the four years leading up to its $46.8 billion sale to drug giant Roche Holding (ROG) in May. In Facebook’s press release, CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that under Ebersman, Genentech’s revenue tripled. Zuckerberg envisions high growth for his company as well, saying sales will rise 70% this year. (eMarketer has projected that Facebook’s revenue will grow 20% this year, to $300 million.)”

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Facebook avoid the IPO and steam ahead with expansion plans. It is not your average valuation we are talking about – $10B is quite a accomplishment. Please find earlier Facebook articles here; Facebook turned down funding at $8B, Few IPO candidates, Rapid growth and several more here.

Here is a story from Read Write Web.

“After we saw some rumors about this over the weekend, Facebook today confirmed that it will receive a $200 million investment from Digital Sky Technologies (DST), one of the leading Internet investment groups in Eastern Europe. This investment puts Facebook’s valuation at $10 billion. DST also plans to offer to purchase at least $100 million in Facebook common stock from existing shareholders.

According to Facebook‘s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, roughly 70% of the company’s users are now outside of the U.S., so cooperating with an international investment firm seemed to make sense in order to bring a global perspective to Facebook’s operations. DST will not get a seat on Facebook’s board, however.”

It continues…

“Digital Sky Technologies is a major player in Eastern Europe, and with Mail.ru, Forticom, and vKontakte among its assets, the company claims to account for over 70 percent of all all page views on the Russian-speaking Internet. Interestingly, DST (mostly through its investment in Forticom) also owns interests in a number of social networks like one.lt and Odnoklassniki.ru.

This deal also fits in well with other rumors about Facebook trying to raise capital to allow its employees to cash out some of their options. Just two weeks ago, our colleagues at VentureBeat reported that Facebook’s current investors “found it a stretch to supply the full amount of capital” that would be needed to provide Facebook with enough money to allow it to buy out roughly 15 million common shares at around $10 each.”

Zuckerberg commented this deal on the pressconference by saying…

“The company does not have any immediate plans for the cash it will receive from DST. Zuckerberg was also asked about a possible IPO, but according to Facebook’s CEO, an IPO is not on the “immediate horizon.”

Being asked about Microsoft’s investment in Facebook at a $15 billion valuation, Zuckerberg mostly sidestepped the issue, but stressed that this investment was part of a larger partnership at the top of the bubble and that he thinks that $10 billion valuation is “fair” and that he “feels good” about it.

Given the nature of the call, there was not a lot of focus on specific features, but Zuckerberg did confirm that Facebook is testing out a video chat feature. Our friends at All Facebook spotted references to this in Facebook’s code two weeks ago.”

Read the full article here.

Other sources for this topic include: TrolleyBlog, The Next Web, PEHub, Northloop,

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