Will Linden Lab IPO Soon? Survey Suggests Ambivalence
So here's the results of my IPO survey. (Click pic to view; go here for some demographics-by-region data.) In the first week of the poll, the majority leaned decidedly toward Yes, but in recent days, many have evidently changed their vote, with nearly 55% now answering No or Not Sure. If you were one of those with second thoughts, what caused you to reconsider?
I'd say it's pretty much 100% certain they won't IPO in the near future. Take a look at the numbers of recent IPOs of tech companies - you'll find that the numbers were small through this mini-bubble and since the credit crunch have become precisely zero. The market's not favourable to IPOs at all right now.
The clever question to ask would have been "Will LL sell itself to another media company?" Mergers and acquisions are pretty much the only exit strategy in the tech market now, and the values of the deals have again been much lower since the credit crunch. So there's three questions to answer here:
1. Do LL's venture capitalist funders want to cash out? 2. If so, are they willing to cash out right now and take a lower return? Or - and this is the biggie - 3. Is there a big media partner out there having a sniff around?
If there is, my money would be on someone like Disney.
Anyway: Definitely no IPO. Acquired soon - well, maybe.
Posted by: Alan Fleming | Monday, April 07, 2008 at 12:34 PM
Pleeeease, can some one tell me what the heck "IPO" stands for? It may be a common abbreviation but not for all people around the (in-)world. Abbreviations are usefull but please, really, write them out from time to time. So people like me don't look silly when asking, heh.
Posted by: Angry Man | Tuesday, April 08, 2008 at 01:46 AM
Initial Purhase Offer
it's a stock/wall street term...:-)
Posted by: Isadora Fiddlesticks | Tuesday, April 08, 2008 at 03:14 AM
@Angry Man : That means going public to a Stock Exchange...
Posted by: Pierre-Olivier Carles | Tuesday, April 08, 2008 at 05:12 AM
No, Initial Public Offering.
When a private company goes public, it issues stock to the public; the *first* time it does that, it's the initial public offering.
Posted by: Alesia Markstein | Tuesday, April 08, 2008 at 05:12 AM
I thought it stood for Is Philip Outrageous?
Posted by: Hamlet Au | Tuesday, April 08, 2008 at 05:37 AM