Press reports are pointing to Facebook delaying their IPO for a few months. Financial Times’ reports point to Marky Z delaying the IPO, however, it has nothing to with the current unfavorable market conditions – and why should it! According to FT sources, it “reflects a desire to keep employees focused on product development.”
The date will be “September or later” and the current value is expected to be around $66.5bn. Bodog threw down the gauntlet to Facebook this time last year with odds on whether the site reaches a billion users or embarks on an IPO first. Those with money on the users coming first will be joyous at the latest news.
Research in Motion (RIM) has suffered another woeful quarter with PlayBook shipments falling to alarming levels. Analysts cited by Bloomberg show that the company is being outsold almost 20 to one by Apple. During its first full quarter of PlayBook sales, RIM is thought to have sold around 490k compared with 9.25m iPads sold in the same quarter. It comes after the company had to recall PlayBook devices in North America earlier this year and they also had to make a number of job cuts.
“RIM overplayed the PlayBook in terms of its sales and prospects,” commented Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co. in New York. “What this really shows is that the company’s prospects will depend on the next generation of BlackBerry’s.”
Their earnings, which will be revealed tomorrow, are likely to continue to show that attempting to move into the smart phone market wasn’t the wisest idea and staying focused on business customers would have been a lot shrewder. RIM continues to struggle in the smart phone market with their share of the market evaporating fast. One problem that many users encounter is the dearth of apps available and explains why they opt for Android or Apple when choosing a phone or tablet device.
