TechBiz

By Suzanne McGee

Griping about the process by which companies go public is a pastime nearly as venerable as the IPO itself. Indeed, it’s a rare deal that makes everyone – the company itself, potential and actual investors and the bankers being paid for undertaking the process – happy. A typical transaction usually results in at least one of the following: underwriters disappointed that they weren’t able to maximize (or hang on to) the fees they earned in the transaction; the company fretting that the IPO was mispriced or that shares are going to end up in the hands of hedge funds who will simply “flip” them; or investors upset that they never seem to get a large enough allocation of the hottest deals.

And then there was the Facebook (FB) IPO, in which pretty nearly everything went wrong. That’s why we now see the rare spectacle of a Congressional committee – the members of which always seem willing and eager to jump on any issue that will get them some headlines and face time on television during an election season – asking the SEC to address a series of questions about the fairness of the IPO process. 

By Nathan Ingraham

 

It's been rumored for a while now, but the deal is now official: Microsoft (MSFT) just announced it is buying enterprise-focused social networking provider Yammer for $1.2 billion.  (Microsoft owns and publishes TechBiz, an MSN Money site.) Yammer will join Microsoft's Office division, with the team continuing to report to its current CEO David Sacks.

 

By Anton Wahlman

 

In this article, I deal with two related issues:

 

1. Driving the Tesla (TSLA) Model S for the first time, why are the investors so surprised that it is so awesome?

 

2. Should Apple (AAPL) expand its product line into TVs -- or cars?

 

Last Friday saw Tesla's first customer deliveries of its Model S to non-insiders. The goal is to ramp production from one car per day now to 80 cars per day by November, for a total of 5,000 delivered by the end of the year. Next year, the goal is to deliver at least 20,000 cars, probably with some upside from the Model X minivan, which launches at the end of 2013.

 

By Chris Ciaccia

 

Facebook (FB) has had its share of bumps in the road since going public just over a month ago. One investment bank, however, believes the stock could offer as much as 25% future upside.

 

Nomura analyst Brian Nowak initiated coverage on the social networking giant with a "buy" rating and a $40 price target, an increase of just over 25% on Thursday's closing price of $31.84. Despite near-term issues and concerns about being able to monetize its 900 million users, Nomura believes there are three ways Facebook can improve its ability to generate long-term revenue: charging for branded pages, improved advertising units, and generating revenue from mobile.

 

By Therese Poletti

 

The young tablet market is already littered with floundering or failed devices.

 

With the tablets such as Motorola's Xoom, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)  TouchPad, to Research In Motion (RIMM) PlayBook, Microsoft (MSFT) has plenty of failures to learn from, including its own previous ill-fated attempts, when it rolls out the Surface later this year.  (Microsoft owns and publishes TechBiz, an MSN Money site.)

 

While some of the aforementioned tablets aren't necessarily finished yet, the market is still led by Apple (AAPL) and the iPad. The only device to really knock out some of its dominant market share so far has been Amazon.com's (AMZN) cheaper Kindle Fire, which has since lost some momentum that it had last December.