Thursday, June 2, 2011

The More Things Change...

An old adage goes, "the more things change, the more they stay the same" and nowhere is this more applicable than on Wall Street. Many readers, especially those who came of age during the Internet era and subsequent dot com bubble, will remember vividly the days of dot com IPOs skyrocketing 1,000% or more in their public debut and frenzied day traders trying to get their hands on said shares. It's been over 10 years since we emerged from the dot com bubble and it appears as if a fresh bubble may be brewing...in Internet names. On May 18, LinkedIn, the business networking site, debuted and skyrocketed more than 80% during the trading day. Fresh on the heels of LinkedIn's debut, other Internet names like Groupon, Twitter, Facebook and Zynga are filing or expected to file for IPOs in the coming months. Some estimates peg Facebook's value upwards of $65 billion, larger than many major American companies. 


Is the Internet bubble back? Time will tell. The only constant is that the more things change on Wall Street, the more they stay the same.

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