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03 Feb 2012 17:04

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Biz: Mark Zuckerberg won’t enjoy his tax bill after Facebook goes public

  • $1.5 billion in taxes for the Zuck after Facebook’s IPO source
  • » Why? Zuck plans to sell some of his shares: Back in 2005, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg received a set of new stock options for his company. With said company looking to  go public, Zuckerberg will exercise those shares before the IPO, effectively buying them at the price they were worth back then, and sell them after the IPO, effectively setting himself up for a windfall of nearly $5 billion … and one of the largest tax bills in history. It’s not like he’s gonna be broke, though — in fact, he’ll still be worth $24 billion by the end of it, much of that invested in his company. So hard for him, gotta tell you guys.

28 Jan 2012 20:53

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Biz: Greedy investment bankers won’t carve Facebook’s IPO too heavily

  • what Investment banks looking to get in on the upcoming Facebook IPO, expected to be filed for next week, may only take a 1 percent underwriting fee on the stock offering. How abnormal is that? Usually, the investment banking underwriters take 5 to 7 percent.
  • why Simply put, Facebook is such a big deal that the competition is extremely high for it; underwriting it is seen as a prestige move. “The Facebook IPO will be iconic,” notes one investment banker who says that Facebook gets to set the rules on this one. source

16 Dec 2011 11:58

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Tech: A poorly-tended farm? Zynga IPO flops in first day of trading

  • Yet another reason we wish the internet was the real world. Remember when Facebook announced that it might, maybe, potentially, could see itself having an IPO in 2012? Well, Zynga, perhaps the biggest beneficiary of the Facebook ecosystem, has beaten them to the punch. The popular social gaming company’s shares are now available for the public to purchase. The “Farmville” company’s stock, listed as “ZNGA” and priced at $10 a share by the company, hasn’t had a particularly good morning, falling below its IPO price at one point. Currently, it sits at just over $10. Will the stock begin to lean in Groupon’s downward direction, or will it aim for Facebook status? source

29 Nov 2011 00:37

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Tech: Aw, Zucks. We’re hoping this won’t “poke” our portfolios too badly.

  • Want to own a piece of Facebook? You might be able to in the spring of 2012. It looks like, despite founder Mark Zuckerberg’s well-known resistance to the idea over the years, the company is on its way to its “initial public offering” — the sale of stock that a private company makes available to the public. (Groupon just had an IPO, and it hasn’t been going quite so well for them.) The social media trailblazers could raise as much as $10 billion from first-day stock sales; that would put the company’s total value at $100 billion. Not bad for a guy who screwed over most of his friends from Harvard (and a couple of Winklevi) to get there. source

03 Nov 2011 21:38

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Biz: Groupon’s IPO downsizes, then upsizes again (just a little bit)

  • $13.3 billion Groupon valuation ahead of their IPO
  • $20 the cost of Groupon’s shares during its upcoming IPO
  • 35M the number of shares the company plans to sell, up from 30 million
  • $700M the amount of money the company plans to raise with the IPO source
  • » It was supposed to be way higher than this: Back when Groupon first floated the idea of their IPO, the expected valuation was $15 to $20 billion, a number which threw investors off and led to allegations that 1) they were overhyped, 2) Groupon was an elaborate ponzi scheme and 3) their IPO is a sign that a fresh tech bubble is on the way. They backed off some of the higher valuations, but then set the price at $20 per share, instead of the expected $16-18. When it finally hits, it’s going to be an interesting ride, to say the least.

16 Jun 2011 20:11

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Biz, Tech: Pandora’s crappy day: When day two of an IPO totally bombs

  • $16 the amount per share Pandora set its initial public offering for
  • $26 the price the internet radio company reached at its peak yesterday
  • $13 the price the stock closed at today; not looking so hot source
  • » This isn’t a good sign: Generally when a stock has a steep decline immediately after its IPO, it means that the pricing is totally off. In the case of Pandora, the company initially planned to enter the stock market at $7 to $9 per share, but with the current investor fervor over internet companies, the IPO price doubled. Meanwhile, other recently-added tech stocks — LinkedIn and Yandex — have fallen from their peaks, but remain above their IPO prices. In the case of LinkedIn, they’re a solid 52 percent above their IPO price.

16 Jun 2011 10:51

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Biz, Tech: One day after its IPO, Pandora’s stock falls below its IPO price

  • yesterday As the latest entrant in the “there’s a new tech bubble” contest, Pandora had an IPO that leaped fairly high above its $16 starting value. Not bad for a company that isn’t profitable, eh?
  • today It appears reality has caught up with Pandora at least a little, as the stock’s price fell below its IPO price in day two of trading, proving that the company is in fact susceptible to the effects of gravity. source
 

15 Jun 2011 11:03

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Biz, Tech: Tech bubble? Pandora’s IPO kicking butt on Wall Street today

  • $16 the initial public offering price for Pandora, the online radio station that predicts your tastes
  • $20+ its current price on the stock market; it’s a situation that mirrors LinkedIn’s recent IPO source
  • » Another sign of strong investor demand: Pandora’s IPO is more evidence of a growing tech bubble, though Pandora’s on a smaller scale than some of the other companies expected to do an IPO soon. Facebook and Twitter, once they do their IPOs, will likely make this look like a walk in the park. Which makes it understandable why some investors might think that Pandora — which hasn’t turned a profit — might get overshadowed a year or two from now. Pandora also faces some tough business challenges because of their reliance on expensive music licensing — ensuring that that their profit margins remain extremely tight.

02 Jun 2011 22:48

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Biz: Does Groupon’s IPO suggest a bubble ready to pop?

  • I think investors will go for this one. Whether or not it’s worth the valuation it comes at is still an open question.
  • Jacob Funds chairman Ryan Jacob • Asking a fair question about Groupon’s IPO, which the company expects to raise three quarters of a billion dollars, and could put the company’s valuation in the tens of billions. Are we in another tech bubble? Probably. If it pops, will it pop on the day Groupon hits the stock exchange? Probably not. Still though — Groupon has only been around for a little over two years (yet it feels like much longer), so they’re the ones who’ll probably get more scrutiny than anyone else here. source

19 May 2011 10:29

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Biz: LinkedIn’s massive IPO: One of the largest tech IPOs since Google’s

  • $45 LinkedIn’s price per share when it launched its IPO this morning
  • $83 the company’s price per share now — that’s right, it nearly doubled in price
  • $352M the amount the company has earned from its IPO today source
  • » A really impressive start for social media: LinkedIn, the first social media company on the stock market, sets the stage for what could be an impressive transition from startup to stock for many social sites. Facebook’s far larger than LinkedIn, meaning that this may be the floor level for what the ubiquitous social site could expect when Mark Zuckerberg finally decides to go IPO.