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Facebook Files For $5 Billion IPO

84 points by llambda 15y ago

jemka 15y ago
Other discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3540158 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3540158
martinkallstrom 15y ago
If there are people who have been waiting out for a perceptively more safe bet to make in the technology stock market, one can only assume that this is the one they will be comfortable with betting on. Earlier filings such as those of LinkedIn, Zynga and Groupon have seen timid responses, and perhaps rightfully so. Facebook is far more well known and it's traction much easier to assess. So perhaps this is the one IPO that will have taxi drivers finally going back to discussing tech stocks again, which is the proverbial sign of the bubble that everyone is on the outlook for.
Irene 15y ago
Looks like hackers are not interested in buying: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3540335 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3540335
- glimcat 15y ago
  Good thing it's not called Hackerbook then. That's also a rather problematic conclusion to draw due to (a) sample size, (b) overgeneralization, and (c) the survey was framed as "will you buy"...so maybe they just don't play stocks, or have to pay off medical bills, or what have you.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
GuiA 15y ago
I remember that when Zynga IPO'd, they filed for $1 billion. Does that mean that Facebook would consider themselves only 5 times more valuable than Zynga? This seems like a pretty conservative stance (it feels like Facebook is worth more than just 5 times Zynga). Is this to Facebook's advantage? Sorry if these questions are a bit simplistic, I have a very light grasp of these concepts.
- phamilton 15y ago
  The IPO was to raise $5 billion. In other words, they are issuing new shares of stock with a total worth of $5 billion. How this relates to the total valuation has yet to be seen.
- accountoftheday 15y ago
  $5b is the amount being raised, not the total valuation.
j45 15y ago
It will be interesting to see how much staff, if any leaves after this.
- rythie 15y ago
  If they do, it will be to start new companies with their new found wealth I bet. The new PayPal mafia?
  - nostromo 15y ago
    I think we're going to see a young angel boom next year. It'll be good for startups and the valley in general.
  - kooshball 15y ago
    a lot of the early employees already left long ago. Dustin_Moskovitz at Asana Chris Hughes at Jumo Adam D'Angelo and Charlie Cheever at Quora
- hn_reader 15y ago
  I'm interested in how many new people facebook will have to hire as it attempts to grow to justify its $100b valuation.
spazmaster 15y ago
For me the interesting stats are the staggering numbers of engagement the Facebook platform has. 845 million users who've used Facebook the last 30 days, 483 million users who use it _daily_ and 2.7 billion Likes and Comments every day. For me this is not really about Facebook's stats, but revealing how incredible the next 10-20 years are going to be with internet facilitating this kind of activity on one smart platform. (and it's just the start)
- arctangent 15y ago
  > on one smart platform I'm hoping that the undoubtedly huge share price of Facebook after its IPO convinces investors to invest in other similar platforms. Facebook will make a mint (for its founders and early investors, at least) but it can only benefit from the "first mover" advantage for so long. I don't have anything against Facebook per se, but I'd like to see much more competition in this market. The social graph needs to move outside Facebook's walled garden and into the public domain.
  - mbesto 15y ago
    Isn't Myspace the first mover here?
    - ryanbrunner 15y ago
      Myspace was a bit of a copycat site of the really early guys like Sixdegrees and Friendster. It was certainly the first to get serious uptake though.
  - spullara 15y ago
    The network and habit effects for this kind of online business are incredible. Everyone has been expecting Yahoo to die for ages now but it keeps on churning out ~$5B in revenue and ~$1B in profit year after year and that is only using email lock-in and legacy home page sets. My guess is that social graph lock-in is even more effective. BTW, it was hardly "first mover", Zuck was worried about being "Friendstered" from the very beginning, thus the slow roll out college by college and the monstrous investments in infrastructure. I very much doubt that the social graph (family and friends) is extractable from Facebook at this point.
gggrgraham 15y ago
The Hacker Way component in Mark's letter to investors has to be the most interesting part. http://theairspace.net/commentary/letter-mark/ http://theairspace.net/commentary/letter-mark/ I don't think Wall St. is used to companies like this.
- sukuriant 15y ago
  You know. That letter made me dislike Facebook a little bit less. I'm still averse to having an account on it, but those reasons aren't AntiFacebook, they're anti-people that might abuse Facebook, but I don't see FB as such a bad thing anymore. [edit: Addendum: That said, you have posted that same link 3 times... once is enough, there are other things to say here]
eliben 15y ago
I would say the title of this link (and article) is misleading. Simplistically taken, it can mean that FB aims for $5B valuation, which isn't true.

84 points by llambda 15y ago

jemka 15y ago

Other discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3540158 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3540158

If there are people who have been waiting out for a perceptively more safe bet to make in the technology stock market, one can only assume that this is the one they will be comfortable with betting on. Earlier filings such as those of LinkedIn, Zynga and Groupon have seen timid responses, and perhaps rightfully so. Facebook is far more well known and it's traction much easier to assess. So perhaps this is the one IPO that will have taxi drivers finally going back to discussing tech stocks again, which is the proverbial sign of the bubble that everyone is on the outlook for.

Irene 15y ago

Looks like hackers are not interested in buying: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3540335 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3540335

glimcat 15y ago
Good thing it's not called Hackerbook then. That's also a rather problematic conclusion to draw due to (a) sample size, (b) overgeneralization, and (c) the survey was framed as "will you buy"...so maybe they just don't play stocks, or have to pay off medical bills, or what have you.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]

GuiA 15y ago

I remember that when Zynga IPO'd, they filed for $1 billion. Does that mean that Facebook would consider themselves only 5 times more valuable than Zynga? This seems like a pretty conservative stance (it feels like Facebook is worth more than just 5 times Zynga). Is this to Facebook's advantage? Sorry if these questions are a bit simplistic, I have a very light grasp of these concepts.

phamilton 15y ago
The IPO was to raise $5 billion. In other words, they are issuing new shares of stock with a total worth of $5 billion. How this relates to the total valuation has yet to be seen.
accountoftheday 15y ago
$5b is the amount being raised, not the total valuation.

j45 15y ago

It will be interesting to see how much staff, if any leaves after this.

rythie 15y ago
If they do, it will be to start new companies with their new found wealth I bet. The new PayPal mafia?
- nostromo 15y ago
  I think we're going to see a young angel boom next year. It'll be good for startups and the valley in general.
- kooshball 15y ago
  a lot of the early employees already left long ago. Dustin_Moskovitz at Asana Chris Hughes at Jumo Adam D'Angelo and Charlie Cheever at Quora
hn_reader 15y ago
I'm interested in how many new people facebook will have to hire as it attempts to grow to justify its $100b valuation.

spazmaster 15y ago

For me the interesting stats are the staggering numbers of engagement the Facebook platform has. 845 million users who've used Facebook the last 30 days, 483 million users who use it _daily_ and 2.7 billion Likes and Comments every day. For me this is not really about Facebook's stats, but revealing how incredible the next 10-20 years are going to be with internet facilitating this kind of activity on one smart platform. (and it's just the start)

arctangent 15y ago
> on one smart platform I'm hoping that the undoubtedly huge share price of Facebook after its IPO convinces investors to invest in other similar platforms. Facebook will make a mint (for its founders and early investors, at least) but it can only benefit from the "first mover" advantage for so long. I don't have anything against Facebook per se, but I'd like to see much more competition in this market. The social graph needs to move outside Facebook's walled garden and into the public domain.
- mbesto 15y ago
  Isn't Myspace the first mover here?
  - ryanbrunner 15y ago
    Myspace was a bit of a copycat site of the really early guys like Sixdegrees and Friendster. It was certainly the first to get serious uptake though.
- spullara 15y ago
  The network and habit effects for this kind of online business are incredible. Everyone has been expecting Yahoo to die for ages now but it keeps on churning out ~$5B in revenue and ~$1B in profit year after year and that is only using email lock-in and legacy home page sets. My guess is that social graph lock-in is even more effective. BTW, it was hardly "first mover", Zuck was worried about being "Friendstered" from the very beginning, thus the slow roll out college by college and the monstrous investments in infrastructure. I very much doubt that the social graph (family and friends) is extractable from Facebook at this point.

gggrgraham 15y ago

The Hacker Way component in Mark's letter to investors has to be the most interesting part. http://theairspace.net/commentary/letter-mark/ http://theairspace.net/commentary/letter-mark/ I don't think Wall St. is used to companies like this.

sukuriant 15y ago
You know. That letter made me dislike Facebook a little bit less. I'm still averse to having an account on it, but those reasons aren't AntiFacebook, they're anti-people that might abuse Facebook, but I don't see FB as such a bad thing anymore. [edit: Addendum: That said, you have posted that same link 3 times... once is enough, there are other things to say here]

eliben 15y ago

I would say the title of this link (and article) is misleading. Simplistically taken, it can mean that FB aims for $5B valuation, which isn't true.