As Facebook’s stock price fell below $28 today, some of Mark
Zuckerberg’s worst fears are coming true, New York Magazine writes.
Back in 2010, when Facebook was a mere Internet phenomenon
(as opposed to the Universal Harbinger of All Capitalist Things, Good and Bad),
bankers were already whispering in Zuckerberg’s ear about the benefits of going
public.
If Zuckerberg took Facebook public, advisers told him, early
investors and venture capital firms would be able to cash out. Facebook could
raise a slush fund to use for acquisitions. And the company could steer clear
of the S.E.C.’s 500-shareholder limit, which would have forced it to reveal its
financials anyway.
But despite the potential bonanza that awaited a public
Facebook, Zuckerberg still didn’t want to do it.
First, there were the downsides of life in any public
company — the short-termism of public investors, the carping of the CNBC crowd
when stocks fall, the endless lily-gilding public CEOs are forced to do to
appease analysts and investors……
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