Talk Business Interview: Social Media IPOs

I recently sat down with Roby Brock of Talk Business to talk about social media companies as the next big thing in tech stocks. Watch the interview here:

Tech companies are staying private longer and building up evidence of actually being able to generate revenue. Now that social media outlets have been established and are continuing interactions with large databases of users, they are starting to enter the public ownership realm.  What makes companies such as Groupon, Zynga and Facebook valuable is the list aggregated information they have on individual populations of people and sectors.

"For the most part, today’s social media companies are generating (or at least forecasting) real accounting earnings.   And nearly all of the popular offerings are based on businesses that actually have customers (instead of just a concept). But it is quite amazing to see the flood of capital competing for ownership of social media companies, and the implied company valuations."

The response to LinkedIn has set the stage for other social-media IPOs, including Facebook, which is being rumored to go public in 2012.