So, what happened to that IPO?
Today I found that the SEC - the company which every public company in the US has to register filings with - has a section on its website that allows you to search electronic filings.
Okay, I thought, Six Apart is a public company, let's look for their filings.
I only found two, and neither of them were annual filings or anything, just "Notice of Sale of Securities" filings, which can't be seen online because they're in paper format.
As it turns out, I was wrong. For all the hype that was buzzing around LiveJournal after it was bought about Six Apart wanting to make an IPO, Six Apart never actually did go public.
Maybe this isn't news to anybody else, but as for me, I think the hype surrounding it was so huge that I started believing it had already happened. Maybe I'm just slow, though, and everybody else already knew about it not going public in the end.
In any case, now that LJ is going to be out of 6A's reach in the near future, I'd love to discuss this. There are a few questions I think would be good to discuss:
* Did you think 6A were looking to go public at the time? How about in retrospect?
* If you think 6A *were* looking to go public, why do you think they didn't?
* Should 6A have gone public, in your opinion? What would have been the repercussions if they had done so? What were the consequences of staying private?
I must admit to being very interested in the discussion this post might generate. So far as I can tell, nobody's talked about the IPO rumours since the sale to SUP - probably because it wouldn't matter any more, but still, discussing these things in retrospect is good, in my opinion.
So, what's your take?
Okay, I thought, Six Apart is a public company, let's look for their filings.
I only found two, and neither of them were annual filings or anything, just "Notice of Sale of Securities" filings, which can't be seen online because they're in paper format.
As it turns out, I was wrong. For all the hype that was buzzing around LiveJournal after it was bought about Six Apart wanting to make an IPO, Six Apart never actually did go public.
Maybe this isn't news to anybody else, but as for me, I think the hype surrounding it was so huge that I started believing it had already happened. Maybe I'm just slow, though, and everybody else already knew about it not going public in the end.
In any case, now that LJ is going to be out of 6A's reach in the near future, I'd love to discuss this. There are a few questions I think would be good to discuss:
* Did you think 6A were looking to go public at the time? How about in retrospect?
* If you think 6A *were* looking to go public, why do you think they didn't?
* Should 6A have gone public, in your opinion? What would have been the repercussions if they had done so? What were the consequences of staying private?
I must admit to being very interested in the discussion this post might generate. So far as I can tell, nobody's talked about the IPO rumours since the sale to SUP - probably because it wouldn't matter any more, but still, discussing these things in retrospect is good, in my opinion.
So, what's your take?