We’re not yet in the frothy internet bubble days when companies with simply a website and an idea of a seemingly untapped market were going public, raising millions and later crashing and burning, taking many investors down with them but we are coming out of the new issue doldrums. However, as with all speculative investments — and that’s what an initial offering is — not all are guaranteed successes.
Facebook one of the biggest and certainly most well-known IPOs of recent memory went public to tremendous fanfare last year. Everyone wanted in as this was a ‘sure thing’ as any. Who wasn’t familiar with Facebook? As Justin Timberlake’s character said in The Social Network, “a billion dollars is cool.” But contrary to most public views, while Facebook raised millions, as an IPO it was a bust. While early investors realized extraordinary gains, those ‘lucky’ enough to get in to the IPO, institutions and individual investors alike, saw the first day closing price well below its offering price, immediately experiencing losses on this investment. While Facebook has stabilized and has been working its way up, it’s still far below its offering price and known as a disastrous IPO
And Facebook wasn’t the only offering scaring folks away from the new issue market. Other well-known names like game app developer Zynga and deal site Groupon are far below their offering price bringing untold losses to many early public buyers of these companies, and scaring many retail investors from the IPO market in general
However, as with the market in general, not all IPOs behave similarly. Business networking site while certainly taking investors on an eventful ride, is at an all-time high from its May, 2011 $45 price and is now flirting with $200. Another tech company, an enterprise-focused ‘Big Data’ one called Splunk SPLK -0.25% also saw a big first day gain, another roller coaster ride, and now a steady climb to all-time highs.
While co-founder Jack Dorsey keeps saying that an offering isn’t in the cards anytime soon, Twitter’s the 800 pound gorilla standing on the IPOs sidelines. With private transactions earlier this year reportedly valuing the firm at $9 billion, Twitter would be the largest consumer internet IPO since Facebook’s. While it’s certainly smaller, the so-called ‘micro blogging’ service is bringing in substantial indoor Tracking, and is still just scratching the surface of its monetization potential. Reports have their making $600 million this year and over a $1 billion next year.
What makes Twitter particularly appealing is its mobile usage and focus on monetization through ‘native advertising.’ Twitter makes money through ad products like Promoted Tweets, Trends and Accounts. Different from more traditional online advertising and the often overabundance of display ads causing ‘banner blindness,’ Twitter’s offerings appear in the regular content stream of a user and work just like its regular content. A promoted tweet from a brand can appear right in line with tweets from your friends, celebrities or anyone else you’re following.
Founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Square is another often talk-about IPO candidate. A completely separate company, Square’s building a presence in the huge electronic payments business. Basically, they enable virtually anyone selling anything, from small shopkeepers to artists to service providers to easily and effortlessly accept plastic for payment on a mobile device. Simply run a buyer’s card through a small Square gadget that plugs into your smartphone or tablet and your payment is processed. Any sector of the economy that until now had not accepted credit cards can now enable their acceptance.
While not as well-known as some of the more consumer-focused web stories, Square is targeting a huge market with its mobile-based payment processing system. It’s built a great team from many of the tech sector’s leaders and is growing through attractive – low – processing fees that are critical for building small business and individuals’ usage. New products like the Square Register further support brick and mortar establishments and their payment processing needs.
Last year, they were already processing over $6 billion in payments and have one million customers. While not a household name yet, they inked a major deal with Starbucks last year and reportedly have a valuation over $3 billion. With a combined business and consumer focus, Square is likely to be another attractive offering when they approach the public equity markets.
With the extraordinary increases in all the data people are creating, from media files to documents to photos, it only takes one hiccup on your laptop to realize how much at risk your data is and how important backing it all up is. Dropbox is a growing player in this burgeoning market, providing an easy way to store your data safely and securely in the ‘cloud,’ rather than relying on your own computer or external hardware devices for backup.
Dropbox has built its business around what’s commonly called a freemium model, where basic services (i.e. a limited amount of storage) is available for free and more extensive services (i.e. more space) is available for a monthly fee. Towards the end of last year, they had over 100 million users and a reported valuation of $4 billion. While only a small percentage of those users are currently paying customers, they are making significant revenue; analysts have them as the largest player in the rapidly expanding file storage and sharing space by far.
What’s behind this apparent direction to the public markets? Well, Eventbrite recently announced an excess of $1.5 billion in total gross sales and 100 million tickets sold. The key part of their announcement relates to the growth acceleration they’re seeing. The company was founded in 2006 and they took about five years to reach a billion dollars in gross sales. However, the next half a billion dollars took only nine months to attain. With $600 million in gross ticket sales last year and its rapid growth rate, the company estimates $1 billion in ticket sales this year.
The company started with ticketing for small, often private events like reunions and professional events. It’s now expanding into larger entertainment type events like the Tribeca Film Festival and concerts from major acts like the Black Eyed Peas. While the company only makes money on a percent of tickets sold, it’s demonstrating a proven revenue-producing business model, something often not seen with many fast growing companies.
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