Remember Webvan? The online grocer, whose initial public offering in March 2000 was among the most hotly anticipated during the dot-com boom, is now viewed as one of the greatest disasters of the era.
Fast forward 11 years and the feeding frenzy around Facebook and its exponentially expanding valuations are conjuring fears of a Bubble 2.0.
Goldman Sachs bankers have offered their private wealth clients less than a week to decide whether they want to hand over $2-million (U.S.) apiece for a sliver of the Web darling du jour: Facebook at a $50-billion valuation.
For one Goldman client, who was expecting a 100-page financial document on Facebook to be hand-delivered on Thursday, hours before the deadline to invest in the company - the whole thing “felt a bit like 1999.”
Thanks to Goldman Sachs’ latest cash infusion of about $450-million with a commitment to raise another $1.5-billion, Facebook has become the lightning rod for debate over whether these new Internet hotshots possess the profit-generating muscles to justify Wall Street’s unforgiving expectations. (more)
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