Facebook equity offer closed to US investors

Goldman Sachs now says it will only offer Facebook equity to investors outside the US as the firm is apparently worried about scrutiny from regulators. Goldman recently acquired a $450m stake in the still-private social-networking giant, and it began offering equity to clients willing to invest at least $2m. But as reported by …

[JaitcH]

Why would anyone trust Goldman Sachs after their recent sorry history?

The name Goldman Sachs is synonymous with fraud and cheating customers by betting against shares they promote. That U.S. investors can't buy in should serve as a warning, too.

Of course it could be a Goldman Sachs technique for pumping up the shares for obviously the wealthier Americans have little regard for borders, they can buy shares wherever they want with ease.

Remember the Dot.com bubble? This might be version 2.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Why would anyone trust Goldman Sachs....."

For the same reason that they trust "exiled Nigerians" who claim to have millions stashed in some dodgy bank.

They're greedy fucking idiots blinded by the promise of free cash.

[tkioz]

delying an IPO?

I wasn't aware that any company was ever required to go public if it didn't want too. If he wants to keep control of the company, no big deal, personally I think a lot of companies would be better off if they had never went public, the second they do it becomes about the share holders and ends up being run for the lowest common denominator.

[James Woods]

what

I don't recall FB saying it didn't want to go public. It needs to go public for a few reasons.

What it doesn't want is to face the same regulations others do.

And with the help of bailed out bankers they will take it as far as they can.

[blackworx]

So what are the reasons?

I'm not being a smartarse here - I honestly am ignorant of why FB would *need* to go public. Surely not investment cash?

[Anton Ivanov]

Practically it is

Once a US company is above certain size it has to comply with rules regarding private share deals and placements, accounts, audit trail, governance, etc - more or less the same as a public company.

Google went through that.

[Boris the Cockroach]

But

available offshore just means the US citizens buy from their various tax havens

As a minor side question though..... how many people actually click on , then buy stuff from the endless ads?

[Chris Harden]

Probably

The same people that play Farmvill.

[raving angry loony]

G.S.

Ah yes, I can imagine that anything Goldman Sachs has its fingers into would want to avoid any sort of regulatory oversight. I can only wonder what other countries where this is "on offer" might do, or is this one of those things that slips through the cracks, and multinational criminals like Goldman Sachs can just do what they want?

[Anonymous Coward]

@JaitcH

For the same reason people throw in with the mafia - they think that being part of a criminal organization is cool & highly profitable.

The more interesting thing is the $1.2B/9Mo revenue. That's annualized at $1.6B. Given the $50B valuation, that's only a P/E ratio of a little over 31. Google's P/E is about 25. So for those who think Google is overvalued, Facebook is overvalued by twice.

[Displacement Activity]

P/E

P/E is share price relative to annual net income (profit), not revenue, so it's much worse than that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Media circus but a sideshow

These financial goons don't appear to really care either way about media frenzy, except as that many more ways to achieve their goals. So, this is justification for something else, and the mention of regulatory oversight is a message but not the main one. What are they up to?

[Anonymous Coward]

Black market spivs

Someone is very keen to cash-in on speculative over-valuation, and some will certainly profit greatly in the short term (current Facebook stockholders and Goldman Sachs in particular).

After that, mugs will be paying heavily to find out just what Facebook is really worth.

[James Woods]

doesn't surprise me

Goldman formed a bank just to get bailout money. All the bankers know is off-shore money, outsource jobs & import foreign labor.

Looks to me as if FB is openly shuning the IRS/SEC.

Wonder what friends the have in government.

Oh wait, the IRS and SEC are probably on facebook!

[John Smith 19]

Zuckerberg. First sheeple farmer?

On those numbers it sure looks like it pays well*

Tough choice on this post. Pirate or BB.

*If they're real of course.

[Tom 7]

Souns like a good one for high frequency trading

put in a bid - and sell as soon as you get any shares and you might make a few bob.

Or you could trade in your myspace shares...

[bugalugs]

Soooo, if the real P/E is ~ 140:1,

Investors are either speculating, taking a position in the rapidly developing personal data market, or both. Look out for details of those taking these shares up - money would appear to have no meaning to them. They seek control. At any price.