BY DARA ALBRIGHT
Based on LinkedIn’s public debut today, the Bubble-ometer detected
the slightest silhouette of a bubble brewing – an inevitable consequence of public
market trading. The stock which was issued at $45 reached $122.70 before
closing at $94.25 on trading volume of 30.2 million shares.
LinkedIn represents the first social media company to have
come of age in the secondary markets and graduate to IPO stardom. Today’s
activity demonstrates the voracious demand for social media companies and the
lack of supply in the public markets. This should bode well for the private
company marketplace as accredited investors clamor to accumulate other pre-IPO social media stocks that can soon be fed to insatiable retail investors.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas or at least 1995
when Netscape made its appearance onto the public stage. Much like dot com
propelled NASDAQ nearly two decades ago; I believe the current social and
mobile revolution will drive today’s private company marketplace. We have only just begun.
On a completely unrelated subject, NextStreet Journal is about to go through yet another name change (apparently trademark infringement is taken very seriously). I hope, as they say, three times is a charm. Any ideas for a new name would be greatly appreciated.
