Facebook IPO was not a failure: Diller
罢丑别听Facebook聽initial public offering was not the failure it鈥檚 been made out to be, Barry Diller, chairman of聽IAC/Interactive听迟辞濒诲 CNBC鈥檚聽鈥淪quawk Box鈥澛爋n Tuesday. Diller said it made sense for Facebook to get as high a price for the stock as possible.
鈥淚f you're going to sell stock and somebody wants to buy it at a price and that price is not a price you dictate, but demand dictates, sell it to them now,鈥� he said of Facebook鈥檚聽$38 offering price.
聽Diller said that most of the investors who bought at the聽IPO聽were probably speculating and not in the stock for the long-term. 鈥淚n which case, they deserve whatever they get, good or bad,鈥� he said. (Read More:聽.)
Facebook now needs to focus on future growth, Diller said, adding that Mark Zuckerberg is only running the company for the long-term.
聽He also believes that the company鈥檚 strategy is the right one. 鈥淲hat they are doing is insatiably working to make their site better and get more people to use it and get them to use it more,鈥� Diller said. 鈥淪econdarily, they are looking to get revenue from it, which is a natural outgrowth of taking care of your customers.鈥�
聽Diller also addressed the questions about making money of mobile. He听迟辞濒诲 CNBC聽the only issue for mobile is the 鈥渇airly small鈥� form factor, 鈥渟o your ability to put a lot of stuff on the page, advertising opportunities, is more limited, but that forces you to therefore create new ways of getting revenue.鈥�
聽While Diller had a largely positive view on Facebook, he did suggest that other social media companies like聽Zynga听补苍诲听Groupon聽are overvalued.
Turning to the IAC/Interactive聽business, Diller also said now is the聽perfect time to get into the book publishing聽business given the 鈥渙ssified鈥� practices at the legacy publishing houses and the industry鈥檚 ongoing digital transformation. But IAC doesn鈥檛 plan to take a run at聽Amazon.com, which Diller said would be 鈥渁 fool鈥檚 run.鈥�
聽鈥淚 like businesses in transition, first of all. If ever there were a business in transition, it is publishing,鈥� Diller said.
