Howdy, I'm MG Siegler. I’m a general partner at Google Ventures and a columnist for TechCrunch. This is where I collect things.
Selected works. Some haikus. Some investments. Ask away. Archive.
Showing 8 posts tagged ipo
What Wall Street did to us in 1999 pales in comparison to what they did to the country in 2008.
Toby Lenk, the former CEO of eToys, which is still the subject of a lawsuit against Goldman Sachs, the underwriter of the eToys IPO in 1999.
Interesting column by Joe Nocera for NYT.
Mark Cuban argues that Andrew Ross Sorkin’s piece on Facebook’s IPO was well, stupid. It’s probably not surprising that I largely agree since I wrote something similar over three months ago (which itself was riffing off of Joe Nocera’s NYT op-ed, which was one of the first smart things I had read on the IPO).
A lot has happened over those past three months — namely, Facebook’s stock has fallen quite a bit more. It’s fallen so much, in fact, that I did something I haven’t done in years: I bought a public stock. Once Facebook fell below $20, I made the plunge.
But I’m not looking to make a quick buck. Those people who were — including Cuban — got screwed. But as Cuban notes, that was was their own fault (or the fault of their portfolio managers). I’m thinking long-term. I believe Facebook will ultimately be a very good investment for precisely the reason that some people are so up in arms: the company is not about optimizing from a stock perspective, it’s about optimizing itself from a product perspective. If successful, I think the latter will ultimately boost the former. See also: Apple.
Yes, they’re taking some steps to help with the stock market situation. But ultimately, I still believe the company largely doesn’t give a shit. And I think that’s a good thing. Focus on what matters. The product.
High-res
Mark Zuckerberg turns 28 on May 14. That is a Monday.
Amidst my snark, there are a few high level things about Facebook’s numbers that I find interesting.
First:
So Facebook had nearly double the profits of Amazon in 2011…
— MG Siegler (@parislemon) February 1, 2012
Second:
Facebook revenue and profit are both about about 1/10th that of Google (which went public 7.5 years ago). They. Are. Coming.
— MG Siegler (@parislemon) February 1, 2012
Third:
Facebook has more profit than Google had revenue when they went public.
— MG Siegler (@parislemon) February 1, 2012
Fourth:
Google had $961.8 million in rev and $105.6 million in profit when they went public. At same point, Facebook is a refined profit machine.
— MG Siegler (@parislemon) February 1, 2012
I certainly don’t love everything about Facebook, but there’s no denying that it’s an impressive company — one of the most impressive ever built. You have to respect the fact that they have no fear when it comes to completely changing their product on the fly. Most companies would not have the balls to do half of what Facebook has done over the past few years from a position of power. That alone is why I’ve been bullish on Facebook for a long time.
Obviously, the entire Internet is creaming itself over S-1 filing right now. But I actually don’t think it’s unjustified. When you consider the Google numbers listed above, it’s exciting to think that we’re entering a new era of growth and prosperity for technology companies. It’s exciting not just for Facebook, but for everyone in this space.
The cynics will say these good times won’t last. And they’ll ultimately be right because well, nothing lasts forever. But as the Internet and technology in general continues to be intertwined into the lives of every person on this planet, I can’t help but think this is all just the start of something that we can’t even fathom right now.
The most interesting part:
By helping people form these connections, we hope to rewire the way people spread and consume information. We think the world’s information infrastructure should resemble the social graph — a network built from the bottom up or peer-to-peer, rather than the monolithic, top-down structure that has existed to date. We also believe that giving people control over what they share is a fundamental principle of this rewiring.
Which reads suspiciously like: “Dear Google, suck it.”
Wait wait wait!!! But but but!! Ponzi scheme! Should have sold to Google!
Yeah.
Groupon just went public with a market cap now 3x what Google was offering them. We’ll see if the good times last — now that they’re public, they’re going to have to show real growth in the numbers — but it’s pretty clear that either way, Groupon did the right thing in not taking that deal.
Good for them.
High-res
Pandora Puts The “P” In IPO — Our Talk With Them On The Big Day
