Monday, June 6, 2011

Followup to Groupon Post

Earlier, I wondered what is wrong with people, that they would buy stock retail (i.e. new, at full price) in crazy IPOs. A Credit Bubble Stocks contributor chimes in,

I'm ignorant on my tech bubble history and the fate of netscape and what it became/was subsumed into but I thought netscape was always bitching because of msfts "monopoly" on new pc browsers and they ultimately became worthless and irrelevant. So how did yokels like andressen walk away with millions and enough reputation and prestige to be treated like the new tech vc sage we should all be listening to and following?
I responded that "AOL paid 4.2 billion for the 'scape, so that is probably why" Andre 1995 is considered sage-like.
I just read that they ipoed in 95 in the snowball and they were oversubscribed about 10x the amount of shares they had intended to sell... something like 100m demanded for 12m intended to issue. So we can see andressens roots on this and what he think is reasonable
Oh yeah, they hadn't made a dime at that point.
Lol... aol, now that sale represented some luminaries buying some luminaries.
That reminds me, I hate how stocks disappear down the memory hole. Where can you get a chart of how Netscape stock performed? It was difficult to find charts of the dotcom debacles in Cramer's famous "The Winners of the New World" speech that he gave on February 29, 2000. Reinforces the survivorship bias and therefore cult of equities.

4 comments:

Stagflationary Mark said...

I will NEVER forget Cramer's Winners of the New World.

It is Cramer's Gold!

Well, there you have it. No one who's bought gold since 2001 has lost money. Fantastic news. Gold is clearly the winner of the new world. Out of curiosity, why was it absent from his list 10 years ago?

CP said...

Oh man! That's great that you dragged up his comments about commodities.

Is it fair to say that Cramer is more comfortable being part of the consensus?

Stagflationary Mark said...

Few "entertainers" ever made money telling the audience that they were wrong. Just a thought!

Anonymous said...

That reminds me, I hate how stocks disappear down the memory hole. Where can you get a chart of how Netscape stock performed?

Bloomberg offers charts of defunct companies. I don't know of any free services that do the same, but the SEC makes companies publish the quarterly high, low, and closing prices for their stock in their 10-Ks. It's not the same as a chart, but it can give a rough sense of a stock's trajectory.