vangogh
02-01-2012, 11:40 PM
Time to get your checkbooks out to buy in on the next big public offering. At least that's what Facebook is hoping. They filed prospectus today for an initial public offering and are looking to raise $5 billion. I'm pretty sure they'll get it. People have been waiting for this for a couple of years now.
According to the company’s IPO filing, in 2011, it recorded revenue of $3.7 billion, operating income of $1.75 billion, and net income of $1 billion
The above is from a Wired article Facebook’s $5 Billion IPO: The Next Google? Or The Next Groupon? (http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/02/facebook-ipo-2/all/1) I found that looks at today's filing and also some of the potential dangers the company faces in the future. It's also more revenue and profit Google had the year before it's IPO.
If you're thinking of jumping in and buying up stock it may not be as good a deal as you think right away. Not because Facebook is a bad buy, but rather there have already been lots of shares sold through early financing and it's expected the price may drop on opening day, something that happened to both Groupon and Zynga.
Speaking of Zynga, they account for 12% of Facebook's revenue, which is a lot for a 3rd party. 85% of their revenue comes through advertising as you'd expect.
One thing Facebook has going for it is they're on a mission, a social mission. In a letter to potential investors (http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/02/zuck-letter/) Mark Zuckerberg shared that mission
We hope to strengthen how people relate to each other.
We hope to improve how people connect to businesses and the economy.
We hope to change how people relate to their governments and social institutions.
Other companies that set out to do something more than simply make a profit and we on a mission include Apple and Google so Facebook is in good company here. Mark Zuckerbeg also looked to Steve Jobs as an mentor and that's not a bad person to learn from.
It'll be interesting to see what happens once Facebook goes public. It tends to change companies and put more focus on the bottom line to please shareholders. For Facebook that probably means doing more with the data they collected, which could push more privacy buttons. Odds are Facebook is going to do pretty well over the next decade.
What do you think? Facebook has certainly done a lot right the last 8 years. You don't get to 800,000 users without doing some good things. At the same time they face some challenges ahead in order to increase revenue and hold on to the revenue they have.
According to the company’s IPO filing, in 2011, it recorded revenue of $3.7 billion, operating income of $1.75 billion, and net income of $1 billion
The above is from a Wired article Facebook’s $5 Billion IPO: The Next Google? Or The Next Groupon? (http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/02/facebook-ipo-2/all/1) I found that looks at today's filing and also some of the potential dangers the company faces in the future. It's also more revenue and profit Google had the year before it's IPO.
If you're thinking of jumping in and buying up stock it may not be as good a deal as you think right away. Not because Facebook is a bad buy, but rather there have already been lots of shares sold through early financing and it's expected the price may drop on opening day, something that happened to both Groupon and Zynga.
Speaking of Zynga, they account for 12% of Facebook's revenue, which is a lot for a 3rd party. 85% of their revenue comes through advertising as you'd expect.
One thing Facebook has going for it is they're on a mission, a social mission. In a letter to potential investors (http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/02/zuck-letter/) Mark Zuckerberg shared that mission
We hope to strengthen how people relate to each other.
We hope to improve how people connect to businesses and the economy.
We hope to change how people relate to their governments and social institutions.
Other companies that set out to do something more than simply make a profit and we on a mission include Apple and Google so Facebook is in good company here. Mark Zuckerbeg also looked to Steve Jobs as an mentor and that's not a bad person to learn from.
It'll be interesting to see what happens once Facebook goes public. It tends to change companies and put more focus on the bottom line to please shareholders. For Facebook that probably means doing more with the data they collected, which could push more privacy buttons. Odds are Facebook is going to do pretty well over the next decade.
What do you think? Facebook has certainly done a lot right the last 8 years. You don't get to 800,000 users without doing some good things. At the same time they face some challenges ahead in order to increase revenue and hold on to the revenue they have.