Somebody please help me understand

[ksmith]

...why Facebook is considered to be worth $42 billion?

Facebook's latest valuation, according to trading on SharesPost Inc., an online marketplace that trades in shares of private companies, is greater than that for Internet giants EBay Inc. or Yahoo Inc.

"Over the years people have paid premiums for the companies best positioned for long-term growth and margin expansion. For good reason, Facebook is perceived of as one of those companies," Standard & Poor's analyst Scott Kessler said. "Whether or not at this point in its life cycle it deserves to demand a valuation that essentially makes it the second- or third-most valuable Internet company on the planet is an open question."

I understand that companies use Facebook as an advertising site, a way to hook up with potential and current customers. Writers, musicians, etc use it as a way to connect with fans and promote themselves. A lot of people use Facebook. Is that what makes it worth $42 billion? Has anyone tried to estimate total business earnings as a result of presence on Facebook, assuming that's even possible?

So far, I have friended/fanned pages of some companies I already have done business with. Sometimes I click through newspaper or magazine links that interest me. Is that where the worth comes in?

Comments

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I was wondering about bubbles. Given that FB doesn't want to go public if they can avoid it, I would hope that damage would be minimal if they did crash and burn. But things like that tend to have ripple effects.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

The damage would be to those who've stored their stuff at Facebook and made connections there, I think, whether FB went public or not. People count on Facebook now (I don't, but that's me.)

I'm listening to Horowitz play Scarlatti, Beethoven, and Chopin on a CD that's taken from recordings made from 1928 to 1959. Needle hiss, but the playing is so glorious I just don't care. Like Glenn Gould, Horowitz had a unique musical gift. He conveyed great emotional passion paired with crystalline, clean sound. Scarlatti, like Mozart, can have many-many-many notes in a short time, but Horowitz manages to make them sound as natural as a ripple of water running down a pebbled slope. No strain at all. I realize this isn't your musical taste, but...had to say it.

And now...back to work. My eyes are burning, every joint hurts, but I can see the finish line now.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I realize this isn't your musical taste, but...had to say it.

Do you mean the artists, or classical in general? Because I'm listening to WFMT, the Chicago-area classical station, as I type. Sometimes I prefer current stuff, but my tastes really are all over the lot.

As far as classical is concerned, I do greatly prefer the Baroque period and earlier. I love Renaissance music. Praetorius brings out the holiday spirit in me more than any modern carol.