The $104 billion question: What does Facebook’s value say about ours?

Washington Post ^ | 05/21/2012 | Charles R. Geisst

[SeekAndFind]

In the late 1990s, the craze for initial public offerings was hailed as the dawn of a new age. The Internet was replacing manufacturing. Who needed a factory floor when you could point and click?

Facebook’s Friday IPO, which opened with a staggering $104 billion valuation for the company, hasn’t transported us back to the bubble years of the 1990s. But, like that time, today’s Facebook frenzy is about what our society values. When Mark Zuckerberg rang the opening bell on Friday, his company’s $38 share price wasn’t rooted solely in the economics of the social networking giant. What the financial analysts are selling isn’t just the initial public offering of a company that Zuckerberg started in his dorm room at Harvard eight years ago. They are selling an image of the United States.

When public offerings break records, as Facebook did with most shares traded on the day of its IPO, they do so because the company mirrors how we see ourselves — and the image of the future we want to project.

Before the tech bubble and the “new economy,” IPOs were about manufacturing strength and proven American power. That’s what the public offerings from General Electric at the turn of the 20th century and Chrysler and General Motors in the 1920s showed.

When Ford finally went public in 1956, it broke records as the largest IPO. By the time Americans could line up to buy a piece of the company, it had been around for 50 years. The stock market was driven by companies with established products seeking to expand, a growth idea that has been uniquely American.

The notion that a product didn’t have to be well-established to attract starry-eyed investors began in the 1960s.

[justice14]

Facebook is an advertising and marketing company based on people talking about themselves and gossiping about others.

Or connecting with distant friends, relatives, like-minded people, etc.

[tillacum]

I’ve also read he’s moving to Hong Kong to escape taxes, here.

[blam]

Even absolute idiot and POS Henry Blodget gets it:

Well, Now That Everyone Has Sobered Up, Let's Figure Out What Facebook Is Actually Worth...

"So, a fair price for Facebook might be between $16-$24. "

[cuban leaf]

So, it’s the same problem that most IPO’s had in the Dot com bust. I really do think it is a gamble that is based on them just having a huge potential customer base. I remember a movie about this sort of thing called “Glengarry Glen Ross”.

The “Glenngarry” leads, which is what the Facebook community is.

[rktman]

Suckerburg will be giving his fortune away about the same time as Bone-o from u(make me wanna puke)2 decides to give his away. Talk about the ultimate “hippocriters”.

Never did understand why anyone would want to let anyone/everyone they “friended” know when they went to the bathroom and what kind of TP they used or how many quarts of ice cream they just ate................... I don’t tweet, twitter, text, myspace, linkdin, facebook or any of those sites. While some find value, I don’t even though I have been invited to get on all of them at one time or another. DECLINED! (just and old f**t?)

Helping keep mankind warm for almost 65 years!!! Love me some hydrocarbons.

[Hotlanta Mike]

G R E E D.

Now a number of these people (profiteers) are complaining the price of the stock is already below it’s IPO purchase price. Suckers...

[ecomcon]

Helping keep mankind warm for almost 65 years!!! Love me some hydrocarbons.

Make that 6500 years. Wood combustion is hydrocarbon combustion too.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

I’m on linked,in, but have no idea what to do with it. Anyone know?

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

—— (I also noticed that he waited until he had the money in the bank to marry his long time girlfriend)

---

Lol! Me too. But seriously, how much has he earned so far? Countless millions wasn’t enough to start a family?

[shorty_harris]

I’ve never seen an advertisement on facebook. Maybe it’s because of my browser ad-blocker?

[SeekAndFind]

RE: I’ve never seen an advertisement on facebook. Maybe it’s because of my browser ad-blocker?

Well, the more reason not to consider owning them at this price. Their main revenue is via advertisement and marketing. They have to maintain a whole infrastructure to support the close to one billion FREE users ( who are not charged for using them ). How much is this costing them?

The fact that people like you and millions of others don’t even bother to look at their ads ( or their ads are BLOCKED by your computer ) is beginning to dawn on many companies who would consider using them to market their products. GM is the first to pull out. who’s next?

[Baynative]

"Countless millions wasn’t enough to start a family?"

I think putting the money in the bank before the marriage may have saved him some community property exposure.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

—— I think putting the money in the bank before the marriage may have saved him some community property exposure.——

Sad, but that makes sense. OTOH, I give him credit for formalizing their 8-year common law marriage.

[OldEarlGray]

“The Emperor’s tailors traded record amounts of invisible thread on Friday and everyone who bought in is marching into the future naked.”