The indicative $45-47 opening price finally convinced me of getting out of (tech) stocks in general. We're talking about $20B valuation for a company which has never made money. I know "this is different", and it has a lot of users, and so on.<p>Still, I'd be cautious.
A $45 market price after a $26 IPO means Twitter left over $1B on the table, doesn't it? They would've had that money, instead of the first investors who can now immediately sell the shares at a huge profit, if the initial price was set closer to what the market would've paid.
I know lots of people are against twitter because they're not yet making any money.<p>The thing about market prices on any market is that the price doesn't reflect what they're doing now. This isn't something thats 'different', it applies to everyone. It reflects what we all perceive they're capable of a couple of years from now.<p>I think twitter has a lot of potential because its something so simple and you would find an older audience more engaged in it. Quite simply put, people love it.
I'm incredibly ignorant when it comes to the stock market. But why would any company elect to go public? Let's see: you lose your creative edge 90% of the time, you destroy the relationships with your users 50% of the time, your team vision becomes one that must equate to profits - forever. This is not natural - to be constantly growing and profiting. Small businesses (you know, the millions of them) seem to hold their ground better in turbulent times, despite their lack of hand-over-fist profits.<p>This idea of unlimited growth is unsustainable and people who can't see that are just as bad as a 2008-era stock broker as far as I can see. It's a very willing and eager group of apologists and utopian dreams. Honestly.
Regarding the profitability piece, they closed their mopub acquisition this week - something i believe will make or break the future of TWTR reopvenue... I believe the money is on that piece to perform or the company is dead in the water.
It's not relevant to the price, but they had Patrick Stewart open the market with them. Well, having Captain Picard open the market shouldn't be relevant to the price anyway.