There’s more talk than usual about Facebook these days, thanks to the big investment from Goldman-Sachs that could lead to an IPO this year. As investment opportunity looms large for the social giant, a lot of people are carefully examining the company to see whether or not it’s worth dropping some cash on shares.
There’s a lot to read, and while some of it is virtually useless (sorry, I don’t care whether 50 Cent thinks Facebook is worth $50 billion or not), there are a couple of standout articles. The most interesting I found was an article on CNN, in which Douglas Rushkoff compares the potential Facebook IPO to the AOL/Time Warner merger. It sounds a little off base, until you see just what Rushkoff is talking about.
Here’s a peek:
Indeed, 11 years ago this week, when AOL announced its $350 billion merger with Time Warner, I was asked to write an OpEd for the New York Times explaining what the deal between old and new media companies really meant. I said that AOL was cashing in its over-valued dotcom stock in order to purchase a stake in a “real” media company with movie studios, theme parks and even cable. In short, the deal meant AOL knew their reign was over.
The Times didn’t run the piece. Of course, the merger turned out to be a disaster: AOL’s revenue stream was reduced to a trickle as net users ventured out onto the Web directly.
Rushkoff goes on to cite other examples of overvaluation in the tech sector and makes a compelling case against a Facebook boom.
