1) Why would Name Media give a complete blue print of their business if they had no intention of going public?

2) Trailing revenue is $60M (2006). If you give it the same sales multiple to Marchex then Name Media would be trading at 4x ’06 revenues. $240M market cap. Hmmm, not very attractive.
Note: Personally, I believe this is to low of a multiple BUT that is something the “market” is applying not me.
btw – Marchex may be a good buy.(imo)

3) The Capital Markets for new issues have been pretty weak of late. Only the strongest companies have any luck hitting the street today. CreditCards.com a company that also filed to go public has an interesting and lucrative internet model. Last week the company pulled their IPO claiming market conditions.

4) The fact that Name Media raised debt reflects they have a very good CFO. Raising capital is starting to get tougher on Wall Street and by raising debt Name Media has taken lots of risk of the table. In other words “if” the market was to crash before Name Media raised any form of capital; Name Media and their shareholders “could” be screwed—- there is a saying on Wall Street and that is “take what the market will give you”.

5) Lastly, YES, every investor wants liquidity. That is why the Board members of Name Media which are the Venture Capitalist voted to take the company public. Whether or not the VC’s decide to sell any shares at the offering is irrelevant. These same insiders can sell their shares 181 days after going public.

** While this overview may seem negative, it’s not. I really like companies in the internet/domain space. I think that Name Media raising debt over doing another round of financing with the existing investors was a great move (better for employees) – that is of course if they can’t IPO **

People who have great businesses don’t need many partners….and they don’t need other people’s money. Debt equals OTHER PEOPLE’s MONEY, and many of these companies that get a lot of other people’s money are reckless with that money. It is like a casino (also see most Hedge Funds).

If you wouldn’t invest/spend your family’s money on the business, then you probably should look for another business. The CEO’s and insiders of these companies will continue to take other people’s money to fund their (pipe) dreams.

Very few of these businesses will be standing 5-10 years from now. The goal is to gamble other people’s money and cash out big if you win, but still cash out if you lose.

Today, in the United States, we are seeing what happens when people risk other people’s money with the intent to profit (Housing Market). It leads to poor decisions and the loss of the money. Much of the insider profiting off of other people’s money is borderline criminal.