Cherryflava

Social media snake oil?

Posted on 06. Dec, 2011 by Jonathan Cherry.

There’s no doubt that Facebook is a popular online platform, but can it generate revenues to justify a valuation of $100 billion?

Well respected New York investment advisor Josh Brown is calling social media IPO’s a scam.

This Groupon ($GRPN) IPO was a disgusting scam, designed by the underwriters to present the appearance of a hot deal so that they can get Mark Zuckerberg’s attention for the real IPO coming next spring.  Share counts were kept low for the media to see a “pop” – and then backs were turned as the market cap was cut in half over 24 days.  Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves.  If I can take pride in one thing at year end, it’s that I kept a great many people from chasing LinkedIn ($LNKD), the Social Media ETF ($SOCL), Pandora ($P) and every other stupid “social media” thing they tried to rope you into.

How much more shit will they sell investors with the nonsensical “social media” tag attached.  As though coupons delivered electronically (and unprofitably) is some major advancement of human civilization worthy of being priced at 5 times sales.  Are you people high?

So if investing in the stock is stupid – is investing your marketing budget in this stuff equally daft?