Facebook could use more older women, not to mention younger people in general. As the company pushes toward what is expected to be an IPO in 2010, it needs to shore up its user base in all demographics, if for no other reason than to diversify against a new social media platform that appeals to a specific community. So, even with the site pushing past 100 million monthly active users according to its advertising tool, with the addition of 5 million in December, there is work to be done if Facebook will make a successful entry into the public market.

Long derided by "serious folk" as a place for kids, Facebook's membership consists mostly of adults. Fifty-six percent of the user base is female, and 60% of users are 25 years of age or above. In fact, 20% of them are at least 45 years old. Some of the groups that are underrepresented are showing rapid growth. Men over 55 grew twice as fast as their female counterparts, though the younger generation moved onto Facebook most aggressively last year. Users age 26 to 34 showed the biggest overall increase in 2009, with 839,000 monthly active users. This represents a substantial shift from the trend earlier in the year, in which it was the later generation flocking to Facebook. Women over 55 didn't jump on the bandwagon as quickly as other groups.

Continue reading Demographic Gaps Threaten Facebook's Future

Demographic Gaps Threaten Facebook's Future originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Fortress (FIG) tries for some IPO magic originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Wall Street Journal sees through the upcoming Classmates.com IPO, and so should you.

Classmates.com will help you find your high school classmates, for a fee. The problem is that finding people on the Internet through an Internet community is social networking: something much larger sites like MySpace and Facebook already offer. And those sites are free.

Classmates Media is selling $125 million worth of stock this week, and this looks more like a cynical effort to capitalize on Wall Street's hunger for social networking than an investment opportunity.

In some ways, it reminds me of the deluge of low-quality alternative energy companies that have come public in recent years. Classmates has story stock written all over it, but Classmates really isn't the story. It just looks the part, and is hoping investors will want a piece.

Seeing through the Classmates.com IPO originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 04 Sep 2007 10:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

3PAR drives for an IPO originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

On Tuesday July 17, 2007 Charlie Rose did an interview with Jesse Wang, Chairman of China Jianyin Investment Ltd. about China's foray into equities and the recent investment of $3 billion into Blackstone Group L.P (NYSE: BX). Here are some of the primary issues that were discussed by Mr. Wang.

1. China formed a government sponsored investment entity with $200 billion of it's $1.3 trillion (and growing) capital reserves to allow them to diversify and receive higher long term returns.
2. Although they have invested $3 billion in Blackstone, they have not fully developed their business plan for the new fund. The timing of the investment was driven by the timing of the Blackstone IPO and the opportunity afforded them. They will have no say in how the money is invested or how the company is run. They also have an exclusivity clause preventing them from investing in any competing companies for one year.
3. It is their intention to invest the money strictly in equities, as investors, over a long period of time, which could be decades.
4. They do not see putting this money to work inside of China because they are concerned that this would only add fuel to an already over heated market.
5. They are aware of the potential to create market volatility if they are not cautious in how they place the funds, and will endeavor to prevent this from happening.
6. They are aware of American (and others) apprehension about Chinese competition, economic power and the effects of them acquiring certain types of assets. They will most likely make more passive investments in long term growth opportunities where they see good value and not acquire entire companies, although this was not ruled out.

Continue reading Serious Money: China's $200 billion equity fund goes to work

Serious Money: China's $200 billion equity fund goes to work originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Wall Street's equity market gets back into gear this week with a solid slate, including 10 IPOs and 7 Secondaries on the docket.

Those deals tentatively scheduled to price include:

IPOs:

Mid-week

• ImaRx Therapeutics (IMRX), a 3M-Share IPO for the vascular medicine company. Maxim Group is the lead manager. Filing range: $6.50-$7.50.

Wednesday

• Dice Holdings (DHX), a 16.7M-share IPO for this web career sites company. Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan Chase are the lead managers. Filing range $11.00-$13.00.
• Encore Bancshares (EBTX), 1.97M-Share IPO for this savings & loan holding company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods is the lead manager. Filing range: $20.00-$22.00.
• Semgroup Energy Partners LP (SGLP), a 12.5M-share IPO for this oil & gas MLP. Citigroup and Merrill Lynch are the lead managers. Filing range: $19.00-$21.00.

Continue reading IPO & secondary preview -- Week of July 16, 2007

IPO & secondary preview -- Week of July 16, 2007 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 17 Jul 2007 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

How big is Blackstone's IPO? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Carlyle prepping fund for an IPO? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 13 May 2007 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.