Partying Like it’s 1999…..Is It .Com Time Again?

Do you happen to remember the Popular Prince song that told of the times in the late 90’s “Party Like it is 1999”?

Our old Prince song came to mind with the recent social media IPO, Linked In, and the interesting first few days of trading, along with the hype associated with the initial public offering.

For those that missed the action, the stock immediately bolted to an almost double (gain of 100%) in the first few seconds of trading from the initial offering price (there were a measly 7 million shares available for investors to fight for on the initial offering) valuing the company near $9 billion, even though it is absent of firm earnings, steady revenues, and a stable business model.

One of our favorite NYU professors, Ashwath Damodaran, has an article on the Linked In valuation that might be interesting to read (we do not make any sort of value judgements in this venue.)

Following the success of Linked In, yesterday Yandex, the “Russian Google” was available for trading on our exchanges here in the US. With more shares available for trading the stock popped only 54% on the first day of trading.

Maybe it is 1999 again? But we doubt it!

Have a Great Day!

JK