Yes Facebook is an important part of your everyday life, but that does not mean it should be an important part of your investment portfolio. Just tread carefully because as an investment Facebook may not be worth the hype.
For starters, we don’t know how much the shares will be issued for, so we don't know if they'll be worth it. Current betting is that they'll be from $30 to $35 each, which will value the company at around $100b. What is certain is that founder Mark Zuckerberg will become very rich with his stake valued at $24billion, and roughly 1,000 Facebook employees will be rich as well, as they'll become instant millionaires.
But with a company like this, you worry that it could be floated at the top of the market.
On the surface its numbers are mind boggling.• 845 million active users
• 483 log on every day
• 250million photos are uploaded every day
• 20million people install Facebook apps every day
• Finally, there are 70 different language versions of Facebook.
There's no doubt ace book is a social media phenomenon. But it is a money making machine, and will it keep being a money making machine to justify its share price?
Now lots of people say that there's plenty of scope for it to earn more revenue through advertising, through premium services, and through selling its data. And they could be absolutely right. But that's not certain, and you would hope that would be delivered to justify its current valuation, which is way more than Google.
So wait and see what the price is going to be before doing anything.
If you're still keen, contact a US stockbroker with an office in Australia like Morgan Stanley and Meryl Lynch to see if they've got shares in the float and have any spare to sell to you.
If not, you can always buy the shares as they are listed on Wall St through online brokers like Commsec and etrade, or investing in an Australian fund which invests in US shares.
49 Comments
Be wary of so-called experts on Yahoo news.
1 ReplyDont bother, Facebook shares will be worth naff-all in 5 years. They'll be opportunity to join a free social networking site rather than be dictated to by Facebook. How much choice/freedom/privacy does Failbook allow now, let alone when they will be competing on the open market for profits. It, like other internet sites arent worth diddly. Where's their collateral? The most common form of phoenix company since the Bottom of the Harbour are e-tech companies.
ReplyExactly. Kochie is a hack.
Replyit doesnt have 800 mill users most of us have multiple profiles we use daily its being floated using fraudulant info..
Replyselling facebook now is the sign its about to burst. Simple rule that when somethings value is about to dive, sell it the unknowing as fast as you can.
1 ReplyI am allergic to Koshi.A total pleb.How a dry bigoted judgmental narrow minded prik like that gets into the public eye and has media attention shows how messed this society really is.People should be more wary of these reporters who get paid a fortune to manipulate and sensationalize with their "news"
1 Reply483 log on every day? Facebook is doomed! Or did Kochie not proofread his article? :-D
2 RepliesCynicism toward Facebook is steadily growing in the online community. Of course it's not prevalent enough to have any shareholders sweating, but it could get that way if shareholder friendly measures are implemented on the site. To keep the value of the shares up, the site will need to continually increase its profits - just like any other listed company. So what happens when people start leaving Facebook in droves, as they did MySpace? That precedent is reason enough for me to stay away...
ReplyMy finger smells like my bottom.
3 RepliesI agree 100% with aussie101. I smell a rat. I wouldn't touch this....
Reply