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by tgma 860 days ago
> We’re forgetting that all of FAANG IPOd when they too were much less than $20 billion

We are forgetting that because... well, it ain't true. Facebook was way over $20B at IPO. Google was close but still higher.

2 comments

TIL, wow. Thanks for clarifying.

Regardless, given the fact they were close / within the same order of magnitude as Figma, it's interesting that the prospect of them IPOing is apparently considered a nuclear option.

I personally don't believe the valuation is far off or unreachable, but someone giving you a valuation that you have the potential for in the future today with zero risk and low pain is still quite different than having to work your way through justifying it.

In addition, once you announce to employees that the company is getting bought, the culture changes drastically in ways that are not favorable to independent continuation, for better or worse.

That said, the $1B cash infusion must be nice enough to soothe most of the pain. I wish and expect them all the best should they deploy that cash wisely.

And inflation since 2004 means a $23Bn IPO for Google in 2004 is like a $37Bn IPO today.