UPDATED 08:38 EDT / JUNE 13 2011

NEWS

Bubble Talk is Cheap, Few Deterrents for SocNets Going Public

The social media realm had its fair share of IPO headlines this year, and the latest name to join the list of companies planning on going public is CafePress. The online vendor founded in 1999 offers printing services for just about everything from t-shirts to mugs, and seeks to raise $80 million in a public offering.

“In 2010, it shipped six million products from a catalog of more than 325 million products, and as of March 31, it had more than 13 million members and more than two million shops.”

The company said in an SEC filing it has recorded a profit of $2.7 million on revenues of $128 million. This latest quarter however ended on March 31 CafePress reported it lost $831,000 on revenues of $32 million, which probably a hand in contribution to the decision of going public.

The underwriters of the upcoming IPO include J.P. Morgan, Cowen and Company and Jefferies.

It looks like tech companies have been going public in an accelerating rate lately; after the tremendously successful LinkedIn initial public offering, that is. The professional network’s stock went up to $45, and Groupon is only one of the companies that is also looking to gain from this market demand.

On the flip side of the coin though, many individuals familiar with the industry have raised concerns of a potential upcoming web 2.0 bubble centered on the social chart. Some believe major venture capitalists such as Goldman Sachs, which owns 23 percent of LinkedIn, are rushing into investments, but with LinkedIn that does not seem to be the case.

The investment firm released an internal report (and a long one) in 2003 saying that LinkedIn is “successfully monetizing its network.” For some more bubble talk, it turns out that the reason there can’t be a tech bubble is because there aren’t enough public investment going on in the tech industry, or at least that’s what PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel says.  But with Zynga, Groupon, Facebook and CafePress joining the party, who knows what kind of bubble talk we’ll be having in another 6-12 months.


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