IPO

How can I get a piece of the Facebook action?

When people hear that a graffiti artist who took Facebook stock instead of cash for paintings he did at Facebook's headquarters will soon be a millionaire after the company goes public later this year, it's hard not to wonder if there is any way you might still be able to cash in on Facebook's riches.

Unfortunately, for most common folk, participating in Facebook's IPO isn't an option. But once the stock starts trading on the public market, eventually regular people will be able to buy shares. It's hard to say at this point whether … Read more

Andy Rachleff: With Facebook, Valley unearths lost art of IPO

Editor's note: This is a guest column by Andy Rachleff, whose bio is below.

Like everyone else here in Silicon Valley, I'm excited to see Facebook going public. No, I don't own a piece of the company, and I don't believe a blockbuster IPO will revive the entire global stock market, as some commentators have hyped.

What I do think--or certainly hope--is that a successful offering by Facebook will help young entrepreneurs understand why Silicon Valley embraced IPOs in the first place. And, importantly, why we need to revive the culture of the IPO.

When I … Read more

Brightcove looks to raise $55 million in IPO

Facebook isn't the only one.

Brightcove today filed its amended S-1 with the SEC, setting the price range for shares of its upcoming IPO at $10 to $12. If its 5 million shares sell at the midpoint of its asking price, the company stands to raise around $55 million.

Brightcove is an 8-year-old online video distribution company that boasts 3,872 customers in more than 50 countries, but 66 percent of its $63.6 million in 2011 revenue came from the U.S. And despite its solid customer base, Brightcove also has a number of healthy competitors, including Castfire … Read more

Woman accused of trying to sell fake Facebook stock

I was in a very nice New York last week when a man sat down at the table next to me and immediately told the waiter he was a friend of the owner.

The waiter, clearly used to such a claim, asked very politely how they knew each other and where they had met. He then took his pen out and began to take notes.

This is not, perhaps, the same low level of trust that is normal in Wisconsin.

For some people in that fair state allegedly took the word of Marianne Oleson, a lady who allegedly claimed her … Read more

Why Apple's A5 is so big--and iPhone 4 won't get Siri

Apple's A5 processor includes noise-reduction circuitry licensed from a start-up called Audience, and a chip analyst believes that fact resolves an iPhone 4S mystery and explains why the iPhone 4 lacks the Siri voice-control system.

Audience revealed details of its Apple partnership in January, when it filed paperwork for an initial public offering (IPO) of stock. Teardown work from iFixit and Chipworks revealed a dedicated Audience chip in the iPhone 4, but the iPhone 4S integrates Audience's "EarSmart" technology directly into the A5 processor, the company's S-1 filing said.

The details answered a question that … Read more

Zuckerberg's taxes on IPO? How about $2 billion

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg may be on the hook for $2 billion in taxes with his company going public. But he's not necessarily all that upset about it.

As The New York Times' David Kocieniewski reports, the 27-year-old CEO plans to exercise options worth about $5 billion, and with such transactions generally being treated by the IRS as regular compensation, Zuckerberg would be liable for the $2 billion figure--perhaps one of the highest tax payouts by an individual ever.

Zuckerberg owns 413 million B shares of Facebook stock and was granted options in 2005 to buy 120 million shares … Read more

Facebook opens its books for historic IPO

Facebook filed papers for its initial public offering and in the process provided us with the secrets to its success--as well as what it sees as its greatest threats.

The company filed an S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission, officially declaring its intention to raise $5 billion through the IPO. The last major tech IPO was Google's, which raised $1.9 billion.

Last year, it saw revenue double to $3.7 billion, while its profit grew 65 percent to $1 billion. Over the past two years, its revenue rose nearly fivefold, while its profit more than quadrupled. … Read more

Facebook working on mobile ads? Firm says nope

Update, 4:51 p.m. PT: Paul Gelb, Mobile Practice lead at Razorfish, sent several tweets today saying his company was not working with Facebook on mobile ad buying: "I would like to clarify a statement I made in an interview yesterday regarding Facebook. Razorfish is NOT working with Facebook on any mobile media ad buying. Rather, in the interview I was referring to rich media featured stories, not paid ads." And in a statement, a Facebook representative said, "We want to clarify that we are not working with any agency to create paid ads on our … Read more

Does Facebook deserve its astronomical valuation?

A day after Facebook opened its books to support its $5 billion IPO, there is still some debate over whether the social network lives up to its astronomical valuation.

In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, Facebook revealed that it had 845 million monthly users and was rapidly closing in on 1 billion. As many have noted, the key will be leveraging that massive user base to generate more revenue through its display ads and its app platform.

However, some have suggested the historic offering is overblown, characterizing Facebook as a "badly overpriced photo-sharing and gaming … Read more

Facebook IPO: Social network makes its move

Silicon Valley and Wall Street had been watching since forever, it seems, for Facebook to go public. Now the IPO filing is finally upon us, and we're learning a lot about the social network.

Forget $100B! Facebook could soon be worth $200BThe financials don't yet justify the lofty valuation people are talking about--but Facebook could earn a place among the ranks of public companies the size of Google and IBM. (Posted in Digital Media by Peter Yared) February 2, 2012 4:38 p.m. PT

Does Facebook deserve its astronomical valuation? Pundits square off over whether the … Read more