Over the past few months, several gentlemen at our local country club have been talking about their investments, private investments in Facebook stocks. As a non-Facebook user, it seems pretty childish to me, I don’t like the format, I don’t understand the appeal and, basically, it just doesn’t excite me. However, in terms of investment it makes sense to look at the numbers. So I read a little.
There are worthy books that you may wish to read are called; “The Casual Billionaire – The Founding of Facebook: A Story of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal”, Ben Mezrich, Anchor Books, New York, New York, (2009), 260 pages, ISBN: 978-0-7679- 3155-7 . By the way, this author also wrote another good book called “The Destruction of the House”, which was related to the global economic crisis. Anyway, after reading this book it doesn’t look like the company I would have invested in.
But I guess it doesn’t matter, they don’t need my money, and now they’re selling private stocks in China as well. Clearly, those making the offer have come under close scrutiny by the SEC because of outside IPO-related legislation and the number of shareholders eligible before the company will be considered a public company and must adhere to different audit and reporting rules.
So, have you ever heard this famous Chinese quote; “Fish cannot be saved from drowning.” Well, on Wall Street, if investments don’t make sense to institutional investors or become too risky, investment banks will no longer offer them to their best clients. So there is another quote; “Chop and feed the fish.” That is to sell garbage to the general public that invests, yes, I also do not like this way of thinking, but I would like to point out here.
Okay, is Facebook’s alleged market capitalization out of control? Did the frenzy of feeding around Silicon Valley and Wall Street create another bubble, this time on social media? Facebook is looking for Chinese investment in an effort to sell a large chunk, as reported in the Wall Street Journal on July 9, 2011. Then the same day an article appears; “LivingSocial is looking for $ 1 billion in IPOs” by Gina Chong and Stu Wu, and the article says that after the IPO they hope to surpass or catch up with Groupon within a year?
There was another interesting article about reading-writing-the web web called; “China wants to buy a piece of Facebook: this week’s online tyranny,” Kurt Hopkins said;
“There is news that a sovereign wealth fund representing the Chinese government wants to buy a significant number of Facebook shares. Is China’s interest in Facebook just a government-sponsored group of venture capitalists looking to get part of Facebook’s upcoming IPO or something behind the scenes?” more complicated? ”
However, there was another interesting article on July 14, 2011 in the Wall Street Journal entitled; “Facebook: is its campaign worth 100 billion” and I think my answer to that question, and reading everything I’ve read, I would say “no”, and maybe that’s why the SEC protects investors and considers it question, and perhaps this is the reason that those who sell stocks do not do so in China. Anyway, I find it all very exciting and I hope you please consider it all and think.