So, this is apparently a big thing, but because of my perpetual state of total boredom with regards to social networking, I really don’t have the will to turn this into a proper item. So, here you go: Facebook is doing its IPO thing. Eh. In any case, lots of new rich people. Maybe the wealth will trickle down this time.
Such a news item doesn’t really belong here that well. Its technology business news, but not really that interesting technologically or even politically. It will have very little impact on my daily life.
Unless you decided to invest in Facebook as a result of this news, in which case it might have an effect on your daily life
I know Facebook = mass surveillance, but wtf is IPO?
You couldn’t just google it, or look it up on wikipedia?
IPO = Initial Public Offering. It means the company is going public, and will have shares available to publicly trade on the stock market.
You’re my hero.
I mean, its not good to be *that* ignorant, but if you don’t know what the meaning one of the two terms ( facebook vs ipo) and its ipo you don’t know, well, that’s a good sign for society in general.
If you go back in time 12 years or so everyone was so focused on tech ipos, that the whole industry was just focused on that as an end goal, without giving a crap about the actual product.
hey…. pets.com would have been a winner!! they had Herman Miller chairs for all employees and free catering for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Selling administrative power on your company to random strangers who don’t work there, don’t know anything about your business, and are only here to try to make more money with the money they already have without going through the “production of a useful product or service” step.
At least if I got it right.
Facebook privacy wasn’t good before the IPO. If I was a facebook user, I’d be kind of worried about what’s yet to come. I can only imagine Murdoch (or any other greedy capitalist) being on the Facebook board and imagining new ways to make more money of the massive data they have…
Lets hope their fate is better than Zynga’s
My prediction is skyrocketing share price for a little while, followed by some decline and stabilization, then at pay time for the shareholders they realize that facebook is pretty much offer very little ROI everyone tries to dump it and the price tumbles.
Only ways i see this IPO working out in facebook’s interest is if the share amount sold is small enough that the curent owners can just ignore any attempt at ousting the current people, or if they themselves buy back the shares when the stocks slumps and makes a fortune.
My guess is the latter.
But frankly i would love to see facebook disappear along with most other similar sites, but of that i am very doubtful as people like to share pointless crap and act out all their exhibitionist tendencies online.
I think eventually Facebook is going to die off, though the death arc will likely be too gradual and prolonged for my own liking.
The thing about Facebook that most of its members don’t realize is that they’re not the customers — they’re the product. They are the two-bit whores being pimped out for free to a massive marketing scheme.
Some day – and not too soon for me – Facebook will simply stop being “cool”, and something else will have come along to replace it. (Hello, Myspace.) As it is, everybody’s parents and grandparents are now signed up, and just about every corporation features the Facebook logo in their ads – needless to say, the “hip” factor is wearing thinner with each passing day.
What we’re witnessing with the IPO is just an orgy of hype. This too shall pass.
Edited 2012-02-02 15:35 UTC
probably pintrest.