Reuters: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reacts after unveiling a new messaging system in San Francisco
Another week, another surge in Facebook’s putative valuation.
Facebook is now worth $52.1 billion, according to AllFacebook.com, up from $50 billion two weeks ago when someone bought a large chunk of its shares on SecondMarket, an online exchange for privately held stocks.
At $52 billion, Facebook is worth more than eBay, Time Warner and News Corp. It’s worth two Yahoos, and worth nearly a third of Google’s $191 billion valuation. Which may not seem unrealistic, until you recall that Google’s revenue will top $20 billion this year, or ten times Facebook’s estimate.
And Facebook may end the week being worth substantially more, because another secondary exchange, SharesPost, is holding an auction with a minimum bidding price of $23 per Facebook share. That values Facebook at $52.1 billion, and demand for the auction is almost certain to push the winning bid higher than that.
The valuations are specious, though, because they aren’t derived by the wisdom of the crowd in the public markets, or even the wisdom of a group of seasoned venture investors. Instead, the valuation is set on a series of fragmented secondary exchanges that sell Facebook stakes piecemeal, in highly illiquid auctions that can drive up the bidding prices when demand outstrips supply.
