How Big Will Alibaba Group Become?
Meet Alibaba Group. It's soon to become bigger than either Tencent or Baidu. The biggest Chinese Internet company in the world.
Read the full post in Forbes
Showing posts with label IPO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IPO. Show all posts
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Here's How Wrong All the Facebook Predictions Were
Facebook‘s (FB) busted IPO is so last week’s news now. We’ve now become so used to it, everyone’s taken to slagging it on Twitter and in the blogosphere.
It’s almost like we were all in on the joke of what a botched IPO it was going to be — except that’s not true at all.
In fact, we all thought the Facebook IPO was going to be a huge hit. We were dead wrong.
Sphere: Related Content
Monday, May 14, 2012
Here's the 30 Second Zuckerberg Video That Should Terrify All Facebook Investors
Read the full post on Forbes here.
In the meantime, here's the full video, below:
[Long YHOO]
Monday, May 07, 2012
Facebook and Google Won't Fail in 5 Years Because of Lack of Money or Low IQ - But From Sociology and Human Nature
Facebook and Google have the smartest people in the world working for them and billions in the bank - and that still might not be enough to save them from sociological forces and human nature.
Read the full post in Forbes
Friday, May 04, 2012
Why Facebook Investors are "Hungry Fat Pigs" and Yahoo!'s Board is a "Bunch of Jokers"
My hit from earlier today on Bloomberg TV.
[Long YHOO]
Friday, February 03, 2012
Zuckerberg Wants An Open Society; Just Not Within His Own Company
"The Hacker Way" is all about meritocracy at Facebook. Yet, Zuckerberg took every step to ensure he'll control the company with an iron fist forever.
Read the Forbes post
Thursday, February 02, 2012
Why Is Facebook's Growth Slowing So Much?
Facebook's hype is other-worldly, but its actual growth is good but not super-human.
Read the Forbes post
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Jackson Says Facebook Valuation May Reach $130 Billion
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — Eric Jackson, president and founder of Ironfire Capital LLC, talks about the outlook for Facebook Inc.’s planned initial public offering, share price and valuation. He speaks with Lisa Murphy on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Read the full Forbes post
Monday, December 05, 2011
How Yahoo! Could Trip Up Facebook's Grand IPO Plans
Will Yahoo! get a do-over to extract maximum value from Facebook prior to its IPO, as it should have down with Google 7 years ago?
Read the full Forbes post
Friday, December 02, 2011
Zynga's Market Valuation Has Dropped $13 Billion This Week
Zynga's valuation has dropped 65% in 4 days. It deserves to keep dropping.
Read the full Forbes post
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
What If Facebook's IPO Dreams Are Built On As Much Hype As Groupon's?
Bankers hyped up Groupon to get the deal done fast. Beware Facebook's banker who do the same for their IPO. Test the key assumptions built into the business model.
Read the full Forbes Post
Thursday, November 03, 2011
Jackson Says Groupon Share Offering Has `Too Much Risk'
My take on the Groupon IPO: Too much risk
See the video on Forbes here
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Zynga: Myths and Truths
By Eric Jackson 
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- A lot has been written about Zynga in the last week since it filed its S-1 last Friday, revealing more details about its financials and future IPO plans.
Overall, most in the press have described the company positively because it appears to be making money compared to Groupon.
The company does have a number of strengths but the general view of the business press is badly misinformed due to a lack of familiarity with the gaming sector.
Here are some myths on Zynga and some underlying truths:
Myth: The company is cheap relative to Facebook and LinkedIn(LNKD_).
Fact: Facebook and LinkedIn are going to be trading at 40 times their 2011 revenues this year, while Zynga is "only" going to trade at 20 times their revenues. Therefore, it's cheap. The reality is that there's a reason Zynga will trade at a discount: It's in a "hits" business where your valuation is only as high as your last hit game.
Myth: Its profitability in the future is assured.
Fact: Again and again in the IPO coverage, you get articles that refer to what Zynga did in net profits last year and in the first quarter of this year. The assumption is that you will see it continually build from there. Whatever its revenue and profit ramp has been so far, that trend will continue. This is the same basic math skills and unquestioned assumptions that caused us to drive the U.S. economy in a ditch because of housing.
Zynga is more vulnerable to a disruption in future profitability because it's a gaming company. Look at the quarterly earnings of any gaming company: it's lumpy over a three- to five-year period. Nobody's figured a way out of that one. And just because they sell their games on Facebook doesn't change that basic industry structure they operate in.
Myth: It is in a weak position because it relies on a few core gamers for most of its revenue and profit.
Fact: This was listed as one of its risk factors in its filing. (By the way, news flash to the media: All companies making filings with the SEC include risk factors. It's not a sign that the company is about to go belly up. Their lawyers write this section.) All gaming companies are in the same boat. Usually 80% to 90% of the users play the game for free. The real money is made off the small addicted users who play.
.....[** This post is an excerpt of the full article, which is available on TheStreet.com by clicking here. Free Site.**]
Sphere: Related ContentFriday, July 01, 2011
Zynga’s a Real Company But Here Is the Big Risk
Zynga deserves to be valued highly when it IPOs. But it's a real company that will got through ups and downs like any other.
Read the full post here on Forbes.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Groupon Is a Buy, but at What Price?
By Eric Jackson Here are the biggest arguments that the bears have seem to have so far, and my rebuttals: 1. This company is losing a lot of money, about $117 million in operating income in the last quarter. Yes, it is. But when did you last see a company take its annualized revenue rate to $2.6 billion from $97,000 in three years? Never. To put that in comparison, LinkedIn (LNKD - commentary -Trade Now) went to $830 million from $77 million annualized run rate over the same period. This is not the late-90s dot-com phenomenon that was piling up losses on minimal revenue. 2. The only reason they're making money is that they're selling inventory at a loss, and that's not a business. This is not Amazon.com (AMZN - commentary -Trade Now) with inventory and warehouses. They're selling virtual inventory. They are selling nothing at a loss. They are fulfilling a service in exactly the same way that Priceline (PCLN -commentary - Trade Now) and many other Web companies do, marketing a service that wouldn't otherwise be sold. That's why they get paid. The real reason they're losing money is because they've been making a huge investment in sales and marketing. They've gone from zero to 7,000 people in three years. 3. They will have to keep hiring people at this same rate in order to keep growing their revenue, so they will keep losing money. Companies make lumpy investments in people and other capital expenditures all the time. Google just got raked over the coals by its investors for its abnormal bump in labor expenses. But this was a one-time bonus. Amazon.com spent a lot recently on their warehouses. They won't have to do this for the next couple of years again. Groupon does not need to keep hiring people the way they have. 4. The company is trying to fool us by getting us to focus on metrics that are non-traditional. They suggested investors judge them by something called Consolidated Segment Operating Income (or CSOI). So what? They say right in the filing that this single metric shouldn't 5. The founders have taken $28 million in holdings off the table. A lot of Web companies these days, compared to 10 years ago, have taken money off the table. That's why SecondMarket and SharesPost are in business. Insiders will still have to hold the majority of their shares for a long time and incentives are still aligned with those of investors. [*** This post is an excerpt of the full article, available by clicking here to go to RealMoney.com. Note: subscription required. ***]
RealMoney Contributor
6/6/2011 10:45 AM EDT
Click here for more stories by Eric Jackson
Most of the chatter and analysis of the Groupon initial public offering last Thursday was overwhelmingly negative.
I'm bullish on the company and its prospects in the long term and I don't think the bears have much depth to their analysis. That may come in time. But whether you should buy into the IPO all depends on price.
be the sole way people judge them. What single metric is effective that way? Yes, CSOI puts Groupon's growth in a very favorable light, but it's not the sign of the apocalypse.
Friday, June 03, 2011
The Groupspawn IPO: What Hath It Wrought?
Groupon’s (GRPN) Andrew Mason is wacky. Even though he killed at the All Things D conference this week, I just don’t get his sense of humor. And I generally don’t like investing in companies led by 30 year olds with no read work experience.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
LinkedIn: Maybe Private Markets Were Right
By Eric Jackson, Senior Contributor
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- There has been endless analysis about what the LinkedIn(LNKD_) IPO means for the company itself and for other tech companies that have yet to conduct IPOs.
.......
[** This post is an excerpt of the full article, which is available on TheStreet.com by clicking here. Free Site.**]
Sphere: Related ContentTuesday, May 24, 2011
Can We Stop Saying Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs Don't Want to Go Public Now?
Web companies don't want to IPO these days because Sarbanes-Oxley makes it too cumbersome? I don't buy it. Just watch.
Read the full post here at Forbes.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
CNBC: LinkedIn IPO Insanity?
How do you stop a bubble? I don't know. That's really for the regulators and the Fed. I don't see this ending soon. We're still in the 3rd inning.
My appearance on CNBC's Closing Bell today:
LinkedIn Investors Bank On Growth
By Eric Jackson I think he's right. What is the connection? OpenTable is valued based on the platform that it is growing and the future profits that it will garner from that platform. The platform is all the restaurants that sign up for the service. Those restaurants pay a set-up fee and an annual fee. The more that sign up, the more profits that flow to the bottom line. OpenTable currently has 20,000 restaurants signed up. The company is doing about $130 million in annual revenues. For LinkedIn, the company doesn't have restaurants; it has corporate clients -- headhunters and large companies that constantly need to hire people -- who pay an annual subscription fee. At the moment, LinkedIn has about 3,900 of these clients. They are going to do about $400 million to 500 million in revenue this year. Although I've criticized LinkedIn for lacking profitability and having bloated up its sales, product and general and administration costs in the past 12 months, the one area where the business has seen enormous growth is in corporate clients, making up 43% of its current revenue (up from 23% a few years ago). This is great revenue for LinkedIn -- much better than ads on its site and premium subscriptions to individual users to see who looked at their profiles in the last five days. The folks buying up LinkedIn today think that the company will grow this significantly in the years ahead. Lots of companies out there need to hire folks.
RealMoney Contributor
5/19/2011 12:15 PM EDT
Click here for more stories by Eric Jackson
I'm amazed that LinkedIn (LNKD - commentary - Trade Now) has more than doubled in value so far today. I wouldn't have bought it at $45 or $35. Congrats to the backers, insiders and institutional flippers.
The best analysis I've seen on why people are buying LinkedIn is from Henry Blodget, who argues that investors are betting LinkedIn is the next OpenTable (OPEN - commentary - Trade Now).
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