
Facebook Is Worth More Than ... - Interactive Feature - taytus
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/05/18/business/dealbook/facebook-is-worth-more-than.html
======
kristopolous
Let's play this game again in 7 days.

~~~
kristopolous
and 7 days have lapsed! FB is down 28%. Wonderful.

------
johnrob
While I'm not going to say that facebook is worth 100 billion (or even the 66
billion it's at right now), it's easy to forget one fact: facebook is
operating in almost every part of the globe. The companies that are referenced
in the feature may be large and well established, but few if any have the
global penetration of facebook.

~~~
pwaring
Global penetration is only useful if you can make money from it though, and it
brings the problems of operating in multiple countries with different
currencies, cultures, legal systems etc.

Lots of the companies referenced in the feature have stayed in their home
market for a good reason.

------
SoftwareMaven

      Ford Motor Company: $38.4 billion
      Public Storage:     $23.6 billion
      Whole Foods:        $15.4 billion
      Sara Lee:           $12.4 billion
      Campbell Soup:      $10.7 billion
      JetBlue:            $1.2 billion
      EarthLink:          $897.4 million combined
    

I think this does a better job of showing that stock prices are about _future
expectations_ rather than _current assets_ than just about anything else I
could find. Just have Ford Motor Co. on here typifies that.

The real question is whether it can possibly live up to that.

~~~
patio11
Facebook isn't tied to paying the pensions of hundreds of thousands of people
due to poorly conceived agreements made in the 1970s which they will be
nationalized if they attempt to get out of, which means they avoid the drag on
their valuation suffered by the major American health insurance company on
your list.

------
hef19898
Given the fact that stock valuations are highly volatile I think the current
drop os FB as well as comparisons of market caps is kind of pointless.

Things have the value people are willing to pay for them, and no matter what
stock experts say this has imho nothing to do with actual values or assets a
company might have. It maybe enough for some analysts to not understand your
business model and your stock value drops way down. On the other hand, if
analysts like it stocks go up. And that doesn't tell anything about the actual
quality of your business model.

Equaly pointless but at least more entertaining were the list of what Apple
could buy with its 100 bn in cash.

Interessting point in case: The soaring stock price of the german TV set maker
(Loewe I think it was) after someone claimed they where about to de bought by
Apple. Did the value of their assets change over night? No.

Now, FBs stock drops because people say they don't see any actual value behind
and the stock was actually overvalued right from the start. Maybe it was I
don't know. But nobody complains when stock drop because some banks say they
don't belief in future prospects. So it seems to me the same people choose
their arguments only to fit the current situation.

Not all of them of course, the really good ones (W. Buffet among others) act
diffrently.

------
patrickaljord
Shouldn't this say "Facebook is valued more than..."?

------
zackzackzack
Fun way to generate a bunch at once: for(var i = 0; i< 100; i++)
jQuery(".nytg").find("a").click()

~~~
AlexFromBelgium
... and then the animations begin O.o

------
sparknlaunch12
I have to agree with the sentiment - why is this an interactive?

Why not just stick all of the data in a single table or create a cool info
graphic.

News sites also enjoy creating photo carousels. Why?

------
dnewms
Unfortunately, Facebook is worth only $66 billion now...so about two
Pricelines.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Yahoo Finance shows a market cap of $84.84 billion as of tonight.

~~~
olalonde
Google Finance shows $66.28 billion right now.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Interesting.

At the time of IPO, several sources said the $38 offering price gave FB a
market cap of $104 billion. At $31 a share, that does indeed translate to
$84.84 billion.

Google Finance lists 2.14 billion shares outstanding, which is where they get
their market cap. Yahoo Finance lists 2.74 billion shares.

Hmmmmm.

------
captn3m0
Actually, Facebook is not worth more than Google ($195.7 billion)

------
devinfoley
I'd venture that none of the brands mentioned in this comparison are used by
as many people as Facebook. Everybody you know uses Facebook. How many people
do you know that drive a Ford? 1 of 10?

~~~
tomgallard
But how profit does Ford make when someone buys one of its cars? How much
profit does Facebook make when a new user signed up.

Users aren't everything.

------
RobLach
Pointlessly interactive.

~~~
a3d6g2f7
Gratuitous use of javascript.

------
a3d6g2f7
How many bitcoins is that?

------
bdg
The JS that drives that is awful. Why are they not using an array?

    
    
        nytg.buttonText="What else is facebook worth more than?,What else is facebook worth more than?,What else is facebook worth more than?,Keep going?,One more time?,Another one?,Again?,It might be time to stop,I can generate thousands of these".split(",");

~~~
Animus7
If you think this is "awful" JS, you're in for a rude awakening.

