For High Tech Companies, Going Public Sucks

Re:For High Tech Companies, Going Public Sucks by akkartik on Sunday March 25, 2012 @11:46PM (#3754895)

"Look at it this way: When Apple went public in 1980, it had 54.2 million shares outstanding. It has since split three times, so those original 54.2 million shares have now become 434 million shares. But in fact, Apple currently has 929 million shares outstanding. Many of the extra 495 million shares—worth well over $200 billion, at current valuations—were issued over the years to pay for companies or people. And Apple isn’t even particularly acquisitive. All that equity has no value if there isn’t some way to convert it into cash eventually."

Surely AAPL with fewer shares would be worth a lot more per share. Markets pay keen attention to P/E.

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