Saturday, December 3, 2011

So I said I wasn't going to talk money.....

This week the Wall Street Journal leaked news that Facebook is looking to possibly go public in 2012....WHOA. In 2004,the  Google IPO was the hottest financial news item since the dot com bonanza of the late 90's. At the time, Google was just starting to be the industry giant it is now, but it was undoubtedly a powerful force in the Internet world. In any case, Google shares were going for an initial public offering of $85, which is a huge number for an IPO, even for a great company. Pundits were split almost 50/50 on whether or not to take the plunge on such a huge price, with many thinking Google could be a bubble much like the other dot com's that preceded them. Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple actually publicly stated that he was going to "pass" on the IPO. Well....by 2007 all the people that strapped their poopy pants on and passed watched all the people who bought in get rich. By 2007 Google stock had soared to $600 a share....My whole family, including myself, wore our collective adult diapers and were part of the group that passed on the opportunity......

In life you seldom get two bites at the proverbial apple, but with the Facebook IPO coming, we will all get our second bite. Cursory research indicates that Facebook, a company with a spurious revenue stream, which offers a free service no less, has a total corporate value of around...........wait for it...........ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS. That number is not a typo, and frankly, I've read about ten articles that think it might be low. (I tend to agree) Compare that to the current value of Google ($130 billion) and Apple ($380 billion) which took years, and in the case of Apple decades, after the inception on the company and the initial public offering to rise to, and you can understand how staggering that number is.

There are 6 billion people living on Earth right now, and of those 6 billion, 800 million are members of Facebook. An estimated 1.4 billion people have regular access to the Internet, which represents only about 20% of the world.....So literally 50% of the people across the entire globe that get online and have the capability of using Facebook....do. That's a pretty fucking amazing number, especially considering that Facebook get's an incredible 700,000 new members EACH DAY.

Okay, so given the aforesaid I will say this with furiously composed conviction. Leverage your entire life to get cash to buy Facebook IPO and sit back and watch the money fall in on your head. Its going to be the living embodiment of owning a money tree or a printing press. I believe in Facebook so much that I would literally bet my life on the average investor making 20% on their investment in the first fiscal quarter that Facebook trades in. About the only company on the planet that even compares to Facebook in terms of addictive, captivating, life changing, brand loyalty from its consumer audience is Apple, whom I believe is trading low right now at about $375 a share......You have a chance to be on the ground floor of something special here people; something that could easily pay for Billy and Sally's college tuition...potentially several times over. Learn from my own mistakes on the Google IPO and get in...Don't be a pussy and be scared off by the initial price----probably huge-----but its going to go through the roof I guarantee it. Lesson/rant over.

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