

How Facebook's Private IPO Screws Other Entrepreneurs - dreambird
http://thefastertimes.com/wallstreet/2011/01/12/facebooks-private-ipo-the-reason-its-unfair/

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webb
I don't see how Facebook trading privately would directly impact _our_ access
to capital. What is most important is that early stage investors are able to
get attractive exits. SecondMarket allowed Accel to do exactly that. I view
this as a great thing for us, because now those VC investors are unlikely to
apply pressure for an IPO when the entrepreneur doesn't want one.

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awakeasleep
Can't other companies compete because the restrictions and regulations
actually protect investors?

Don't investors lose stability by operating in unregulated markets?

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fleitz
Wireless and Mobile ventures attract 'limitless' capital because investors
feel that it offers an attractive return/risk profile, often these are winner
take all types of businesses and once a winner has been established money
pours in.

If you feel it's unfair then start offering a more attractive risk/reward
profile to investors. This FB IPO (initial private offering) doesn't screw
other entrepreneurs it forces them to compete. Investors aren't under any
obligation to fund your startup.

As my mom always said when I complained about things being unfair: life isn't
fair.

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alex_c
That's not the point of the article, I think. It's not that FB is unfair
because it's a better investment opportunity. It's that by going outside the
usual framework, such deals have an advantage - by virtue of less overhead due
to regulation - over deals that play by the "rules".

I don't know enough about financial regulations to judge whether that's true,
but that's the meaning I took from the article.

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gojomo
Other massively-attractive deals could also improvise their own new
frameworks... so it still reduces to: if you're offering a hot deal, you'll be
fine one way or another.

By testing new arrangements, and creating liquidity for new angels, this kinds
of deal also broadens the ecosystem for other ventures.

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reynolds
Private IPO sounds kind of funny to me. IPO literally means Initial Public
Offering.

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brown9-2
Doesn't the SEC still have a hand in regulating these Goldman-type
transactions?

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webb
Yes, I don't think they have ruled whether Goldman's SPV will be viewed as a
single investor. If it's not it may eventually force Facebook to go public.

