Friday, July 27, 2012

Facebook: A Dog with Fleas

Gordon Gekko to Bud Fox - Wall Street (1987)
"Not bad, but that's a dog with different fleas."


The stock is in a nose-dive. The CEO is offering Wall Street no guidance on future operating expectations. People are now calling the company FaceBerg. Investors feel "Zucker-punched." Mark Cuban exited the stock weeks ago with a $200k hit to his personal balance sheet. The last minute over-pricing of the Facebook IPO (as recommended by the Facebook CFO) now looks like an exercise in pure greed.


But, nevertheless, and in the interest of fair reporting and commentary, the stock and the company still has fans. This is what passes for sophisticated financial analysis on Wall Street these days:

"The company's user base currently comprises the third-largest country in the world, and its emphasis on mobile platforms suggests to us that it can become the largest country in the world in a matter of years. Facebook has immense value, which may not be readily apparent from its near term earnings, but which is substantial nonetheless." - Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter