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by Aethaeryn 5135 days ago
If there's a bubble, and it's related to the Facebook IPO, then why did Facebook lose 11% of its value on Monday?
1 comments

Because the bubble is already over. The Facebook IPO marks the zenith of this relatively modest bubble period.

Ditto for Groupon, Zynga, Pandora and the like having the insane valuations that they did, while generating zero profit - their valuations have imploded massively. Or a company like HomeAway, that was sporting a $4 billion market cap, and a 600 pe ratio; or LinkedIn with its 1,000 or so pe ratio. The bubble has already exploded for companies like Netflix, whose valuation has collapsed back to earth. A few more like CRM are temporarily defying gravity.

Public companies seem to be coming back to earth, but I'm not sure that's the case for private companies. The valuations there seem to be just getting more and more outlandish.

On the other hand, if it's all VCs and funds of funds losing silly-money, then no harm no foul, I suppose.

The problem will occur once the JOBS Act kicks in and anyone can lose their money. That's when the bubble will really pop.
The effects always ripple, even from far away private financial sectors.
You do know that Groupon and Zynga have been making profits right ?
That's news to me.

For their last quarter (NY Times): "Zynga said its net loss was $85.4 million, or 12 cents a share, in the most recent three months."

Groupon has lost a lot of money the last four quarters. Their latest quarter could best be described as break-even, and negative with option expenses.

Reuters: "Groupon reported first-quarter pro-forma net income, which excludes option expenses, of 2 cents per share, versus a net loss of 41 cents a share, a year earlier."

No doubt the right direction. However, a company that's break even, with $2.x billion in annual sales, is not worth $8 billion. It's a lot better than the $20x billion they were formerly worth of course.