Not included in the long list of investors betting $100 million on Twitter today: Union Square Ventures, one of the messaging service’s most prominent backers. What happened? Best guess: The $1 billion valuation priced the early investor out.
Even when the M&A market was shut down, Wall Street couldn’t stop speculating about GE’s intentions for its NBC Universal unit. And now that it’s deal-making time again, the chatter is getting very noisy.
Hence the flurry of coverage over yesterday’s remarks by Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy, in which he said…not very much.
Looking for lots of specifics about the $200 million at $10 billion valuation deal that Facebook and Digital Sky Technologies just announced? Then you have come to the wrong conference call, my friend. But for what it’s worth, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg did sound fairly upbeat and confident during his chat with reporters Tuesday morning–the way you’d expect someone who just cashed a check for a couple hundred million to sound.
The big picture: Even though Facebook’s official valuation has slid from $15 billion (November 2007, when Microsoft invested) to $10 billion, Zuckerberg is OK with that, arguing that 1) that deal was done at the peak of the market, and 2) it was never really a financial deal, but a way for Microsoft to partner up with Facebook.
The online ticket resale business–what most people would call legalized scalping–seems like a pretty decent market. But Ticketmaster may be getting out of it in order to mollify regulators, and an analyst predicts Ebay may do the same to please Wall Street.
Mark Zuckberg’s company has come a long way since the Harvard dorms. But if it wants to measure up against Silicon Valley’s most successful start-up of the last 20 years, it has some work ahead of it.
What does a money-losing porn and social-networking company do with a $95,000 car? Apparently, it tries to give it away as a contest prize. Still unclear: Why Adult FriendFinder bought the Ferrari from its founder.
Anyone who buys into the FriendFinder Networks IPO won’t just be buying a piece of a debt-ridden, money-losing collection of porn sites and social networks. They’ll also be buying a piece of a car the company bought from one of its founders, and now values at $95,000. Readers tell me it’s a Ferrari Modena.
Potential investors in FriendFinder Networks don’t just get to own a piece of a debt-ridden collection of porn sites and social networks. They also get part ownership of a $95,000 car. But exactly what kind of $95,000 car are they getting?
What kind of tech and media company tries to go public in this economy? A tech and media company with no other options. Meet FriendFinder Networks, which needs to raise a lot of money very quickly.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
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