Much Ado About Nothing

I have to take a break from the public/private thread ... just for today, and in reality, it's not all that far off target. Three days ago Facebook went "public". I'm not exactly sure what that means, really. It's a private company that is now held by different private persons (but not very different from who was holding it before). According to reports, there are now a good number of tens-millionaires that there weren't before. And yes, there are a number of newly minted paper-billionaires in the crowd as well, but I'm not sure what is "public" about that. Talking about the stock market and public makes about as much sense as talking about the public in relation to the Freemasons. But that doesn't stop us from getting excited, does it?

So what actually happened on Thursday? Well, take away the hype and the private fortunes and what's left? Right. Nothing. I didn't feel the earth miss a beat in its rotation. The Messiah didn't arrive. Cancer wasn't cured and neither was AIDS. And for those of you who think the stock market has something to do with the economy as a whole or its "health", well, I suppose you just have to go on living your illusion. Facebook -- at the moment -- is the most highly "valued" company in the world. And the only question that comes to my mind is "so?" Oh, don't get me wrong. There are no sour grapes here. Whether Mr. Zuckerberg is a pauper or billionaire makes no difference to me. Money is money and you're either beholden to it or your not. It doesn't make people people. Too often, it turns them into un-people, so let's hope this fate doesn't befall Mr. Z.

No, I'm just surprised by all the airtime such a non-event gets. Facebook is an advertising platform (when seen as a business, which it really is). Whether people can get in touch with old friends or post silly pictures of themselves or out themselves in ways they never would in person doesn't really matter. People are that way, and just being able to accumulate a good number of them in one place is attractive go advertisers. OK, some, like GM, got tired of no return on investment and pulled out. That Facebook generates only about one-seventh of the revenues of Goldman-Sachs (another peach of a company, considering how much public money went into them), it's now twice as "valuable". I think it's time we started reconsidering what we really mean when we use certain words. So, what is it that they really do as a business. It would seem very little.

And that's where this is all going to end, I'm sure. If the banks hadn't jumped in to the tune of about $300 million on that first day, the stock price would have closed lower than it started ... oh, by the way, that's considered a bust on Wall Street. What some people won't do to keep the illusion going. And, in the end, who's going to end up paying for all of this? You guessed it, the public. That's what going public is apparently all about.