STRAIGHT TALK
MARK BARNES: Facebook proves again that the herd determines value
What do you say of a share trading at 5% of its pre-crash price? Well, it’s a share that fell by 90%, and then halved. That’s what they used to say, back in the day when men were men and valuations were valuations. The good old days, when everyone knew what the right price-earnings multiple should be, or premium to NAV or share swap ratio, or … whatever. The truth is that we never really knew then, and we sure as hell don’t know now. And don’t give me this willing buyer, willing seller nonsense. Maybe informed buyer, informed seller, but how would you define that, and how would you know? Valuations have never been science. At best they have been assurance providers, giving comfort to the parties that their negotiated outcome, by some reference, is not entirely silly. Maybe even defensible.Valuations don’t get done to find things out. They don’t explore, they confirm. But they rely on a lot of things being "normal", including the ratios and absolutes in the income statements and bala...
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