First there was Renren, the "Facebook of China." Then came the LinkedIn offering last week. Today, Yandex, "the Google of Russia" went public in a deal that was wildly oversubscribed and saw the stock surge on its first day of trading.
These and other echoes of the 1990s tech boom are causing investors and pundits to wonder: Is this bubble 2.0?
"We are nowhere near a bubble," Henry says. "We are debasing the word 'bubble' by attaching it every time there's a price that's higher than we understand."
Despite the hoopla over Web 2.0 valuations — including for private companies like Facebook and Groupon — these companies are far more mature and profitable than the bulk of tech companies going public in 1999 and early 2000.
Furthermore, the valuations for today's top-tier tech companies — notably Apple and Google — are a far cry from the outrageous P/E ratios of the "horsemen" of the 1990's tech boom: Microsoft, Cisco, Dell and Intel.
If current tech trends continue — and the economy doesn't collapse — expect more IPOs of more Web 2.0 companies -- something founders, VCs and investment bankers all want. At some point, the second- and third-tier companies will try to go public: If you see shares of unprofitable companies with sketchy business plans soaring on the first day of trading, then comparisons to the 1990's boom might make sense.
But would that really be such a "bad" thing? Not according to Dan Gross, as you'll see in the accompanying video.
Aaron Task is the host of The Daily Ticker. You can follow him on Twitter at @atask or email him at altask@yahoo.com
