IPO

How LinkedIn's bankers justify its price

The banks that believed LinkedIn was worth $45 a share last month now think it's a great investment at $85. Nothing changes on Wall Street.

By Kevin Kelleher, contributor

FORTUNE -- Consider the research analyst. Toiling in a job on Wall Street that is at once one of its most visible and least glamorous. Expected to write with integrity while serving - all too often - at the pleasure of the underwriting MORE

Pandora: The money-losing music machine

In Pandora's current business model, it loses money on every transaction. Nevertheless, it's riding the wave of tech IPOs.

FORTUNE -- There is a fundamental problem with Pandora Media's business model: the more its product is used, the more money it loses. That's the opposite of what makes a company viable in the long term. Nevertheless, the online music service is asking public shareholders to finance its growth so it can MORE

The checkered past of Groupon's chairman

Groupon's largest shareholder and chairman, Eric Lefkofsky, has a back story investors might want to know.

By Kevin Kelleher, contributor

FORTUNE -- "Lets start having fun... lets get funky... let's announce everything... let's be WILDLY positive in our forecasts... lets take this thing to the extreme... if we get wacked [sic] on the ride down-who gives a shit... THE TIME TO GET RADICAL IS NOW... WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE..."

This is a MORE

The case for a $50 billion Facebook

When will Facebook go public? How will it monetize its users? We don't know yet, but here's one educated guess about how much the social networking giant will be worth.

by Andy M. Zaky, contributor

Like many privately held companies, Facebook is very tight-lipped about its financial performance. It told us it became cash flow positive for the first time in September 2009, and earlier this summer it announced it had MORE

Look before you leap: M&A vs. IPO?

By Michael Orbach, contributor

Technology companies that are looking to take the plunge and go public might benefit from thinking twice. In many cases, they may be better off with an M&A or private equity transaction.

Lest we forget the lessons of our past, CEO's must remember that an IPO is a financing event in a recapitalization process, not a liquidity event. While it is encouraging that the number of information MORE

New owners plan to supercharge Skype

All you 480 million Skype users out there should be rejoicing today, now that the Internet calling and video service has been freed from the clutches of eBay.

As was announced this morning, eBay is selling a 65% stake in Skype for $1.9 billion in cash to a group of private equity shops and venture capitalists. The deal also includes a loan from eBay of $125 million.

So let's call it $2 billion. That's MORE

The Summer of (IPO) Love

Will 2009 go down as the year the tech IPO returned?

If you have been an investor in technology IPOs in recent months you've done well.

Starting in April, and really gathering momentum this summer, there has been a slew of tech companies that leapt through the public market window including Changyou (CYOU), Rosetta Stone (RST), OpenTable (OPEN), and most recently Emdeon (EM).

According to IPO research firm Renaissance Capital, the average overall MORE

VCs big on small investments

By Michal Lev-Ram

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. - The next big thing in venture capital is small investments, according to a panel of Silicon Valley investors who appeared at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference on Tuesday.

"There's no IPO market to speak of right now, big companies like Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) are doing far fewer deals than in previous years, so where are the exits coming from?" asked Adam Lashinsky, Fortune MORE