Join the ‘I Can’t Wait to Get the Hell out of the Zuckerburbs’ Network?
by John Paczkowski
Posted on October 11, 2007 at 5:46 AM PT
Well what do you know: the media buzz around Facebook doesn’t quite correlate with the site’s usage metrics. According to September comScore data, Zuckerburbia suffered a noticeable decline in unique visitors and page views both. Uniques are down 9.3%, page views 3.8%–this during a back-to-school month in which we should have seen both numbers spike.
What’s going on here? Who knows. But it might be time for the company to stop reading its press and start thinking seriously about taking some of the cash being flashed its way.
“Facebook has an enormous opportunity, and if the company doesn’t blow it, it could be worth every bit of $15 billion,” writes Silicon Alley Insider’s Henry Blodget. “Part of not blowing it, however, means playing the odds, and when investors are literally begging you to take their cash (as they appear to be), the odds almost always favor taking some of it. Why? Because the economy might weaken tomorrow, taking Internet advertising spending down with it. Because a competitor might develop an interesting solution that [CEO Mark] Zuckerberg might want to buy. Because the stock market might crash, converting Facebook’s $15 billion valuation into $5 billion (or less). Because Zuckerberg might do something stupid (sorry–this has to be considered a possibility). Because in all of these cases and more, it would be nice to have $500 million in the bank.”
