[msgilligan]

I started to read this article and saw no mention of Sarbanes-Oxley. I searched for 'Sarbanes' and 'SOX'. How old is Farad Manjoo? How old is his editor? Or does this cluelessness come from the filter bubble of working for the New York Times?

[ashurbanipal]

That's a great point. I wish everything written by Farhad had a warning label on it for gross stupidity.

Sarb-Ox is clearly a big deal. However the bigger challenge facing these "stay private" companies is their massive need for cash. Traditionally, private companies generate a lot of positive cash flow which they use to support debt loads from either banks or the bond markets. These companies are starting to access the debt markets (witness Uber's large LOC and recent convert issuance) but without the cash flow to back up that debt. This will become an issue, because as of yet there is no private market for equity capital to be used to pay off debt at par - private equity and VC investors are not in that business as they have time-limited funds which need to produce positive cash returns in 7 - 10 years to pay back the LPs... The public markets represent the largest pool of permanent capital out there so unless the Unicorns stop bleeding cash they will have to come to the public markets eventually.

AMZN seems like the best possible outcome for these companies.

[icebraining]

He's 37, in case you're really wondering. I do find it funny that he wrote a book called "True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society" :)

[jseliger]

Here is his response: https://twitter.com/fmanjoo/status/616624526374256640 : "@seligerj a whole article about a complex issue and no mention of my pet interest that is just of many factors in the discussion!!!!??" Does anyone have good data / sources on the role of SarBox?

[msgilligan]

OK, that answers a few questions. It's not ignorance, it's bias.

[bpodgursky]

It's either uninformed or a hit piece, if it doesn't cite SOX as the main cause. Either way adds nothing to the general public understanding.