When news first broke that Facebook stock would eventually go public, Wall Street’s collective investment boner skyrocketed. After all, we’re in desperate need of a new bubble to eventually destroy the economies of the future, so why not invest in the same social networking that has already captured our attention spans and given us new ways to completely avoid people while confronting everyone in the world? So while Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook continue preparation for the company’s IPO, people are eager to wet their beaks with any other social networking site that takes the first plunge. Even LinkedIn, which launched its IPO today.
Maybe it’s the consistent excitement for the eventual launches of Facebook and Twitter IPOs, but LinkedIn has some market experts scratching their heads after the site’s executives raised the IPO price by 30% yesterday. Originally, shares were going to launch between $32 and $35, but LinkedIn’s brass decided that “strong institutional demand” called for prices around $42 to $45. If they’re right, it could mean an IPO launch worth almost $220 million. All I know is that I haven’t logged into my LinkedIn account since the day after I opened it two years ago.
As Facebook and Twitter are still private companies, they remain the most watched on SecondMarket, which begs the question – what the heck is SecondMarket? Created in 2009, SecondMarket allows high-capital investors to get a piece of private companies before they go public, if they ever go public, as well as other “alternative investments”. In the two years that it has operated, SecondMarket has executed more than $600 million in deals, but now the company’s numbers are dropping because of the looming eye of Sauron, or the SEC as people on Wall Street like to call it. However, SecondMarket’s executives claim that their numbers are only dropping because they’re creating more rules. And if there’s one thing the stock market is known for, it’s adhering to rules.
Enough with the teasing, you say? Rumors have projected Facebook’s IPO launch in May of 2012, which is bad news for people who believe the rapture is going down this Saturday, mainly because they don’t have any money left to invest. Zuckerberg and other Facebook officials (I assume whoever runs Justin Bieber’s fan page and Justin Timberlake) have been meeting with banks to discuss the initial stages of an IPO, which undoubtedly has every investment banker on the planet clicking “Like”.
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- LinkedIn is the first major social networking site to launch public IPO. (Market Watch)
- Facebook and Twitter remain immensely popular among SecondMarket’s traders. (CNBC)
- Mark Zuckerberg meets with banks to discuss possibility of Facebook IPO. (Investment Week)
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- Remember all that chatter about new jobs, strong growth, and more spending at the beginning of the year? Remember how happy and confident financial experts seemed when they told you that the economy was rebounding and we were going to be fine again? Remember all of that? Well forget it. (Chicago Tribune)
- I’m sorry, was that a little too bleak? Don’t worry, America. Wait, I mean, worry about the economy, but don’t worry about being alone, because the global economy has people all over the world freaking out right now, especially in Europe, where the debt crisis has all but killed growth. (Market Watch)
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- Of the people who actually use LinkedIn to promote, maintain and expand their businesses, as well as finding jobs and making professional connections, only 16% are management level and 28% vice president or executive level, while 56% are simply individual contributors. The rest? Professional porn spam. (Social Media Statistics)
- In 2010, LinkedIn saw its highest monthly total of unique visitors in September, when 46.5 million people throughout the world checked in on September 16. More than 40% of those visitors were Americans, and 21.1 million unique hits were recorded in the U.S. on September 17.
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