Monday, May 21, 2012

FACEBOOK IPO FLUB DUE TO GREED

FB is currently trading at $34.67, down from its offer price of $38. this is should not be a surprise. it was the culmination of a series of steps that built on each other. these steps include the following they drove the underwriters to an all time lowest underwriting commission. i think 1%. many applauded this as the new young tech kids showing those greedy bankers. however, there is a reason for the commission. one of which is to use it to help support the stock in the after market. but with such a low commission, they didnt have much fire power and dropped away from the bid and the stock went down. they increased the price range, not in the face of huge demand but because their ego wanted to top $100 billion in valuation. they increased the amount of shares offered to retail. this was a sign of weakness. in hot deals, institutional demand is in multiples of the deal size and people get a fraction of their request. offering more to retail was not generous altruism. it was a cynical tactic in the face of institutional resistance to price. retail investors are less sophisticated they then increased the number of shares. this was so more insiders could sell shares, not more money for the company. peter thiel thanks you they priced it at the high end of the range, after having the temerity of trying to increase the price even higher than the new higher range having said this. its just an ipo. the company can still do well and prosper. it needs to execute. remember the google ipo. its was a mess also. the genius tech guys showed those greedy bankers also. they decided to do a dutch auction, which nobody understood, which led to a low price. they recovered by executing. earning googles of money. personally i dont think facebook was worth 100 billion and will have trouble justifying the price. sometimes the smart kids arent so smart. just another bunch of greedy ego driven idiots

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