The Fake Unemployment number will come out tomorrow. As you know they’re full of crap with those numbers. I can make the unemployment rate go to 7% tomorrow morning by taking 2 million people off of the “looking for jobs” report. That’s they have done over the past couple of numbers. They’re dividing by a different number. So it’s B.S. to me.
But markets look at what they look at and we’ll see what tomorrow brings. Estimates are for the creation of 150,000 jobs. I do know there’s some birth-death model thing — go look it up – that may make it worse…I have no idea. We’ll see what the numbers look like tomorrow.
Facebook filed. I’m not exactly sure when they’ll come public. Symbol will be FB. I have absolutely no clue what the stock will open at. What I do know are some facts and some figures.
- They did $3 billion revenues in the last year with a $1 billion profit.
- They have the lion’s share of the audience.
- They make a lot of money from Zynga
- They make a lot of money from advertising.
The question is: How will a stock that has a $100 billion market cap, at the IPO offer, with only $3 billion in revenues do?
We’ll see. Keep in mind there have been a lot of IPOs recently coming out at discounts. Now the good news is, a bunch of IPOs that were dormant, have gotten a little bit of life the past few days because they’re kinda attached to Facebook. Zynga has gone to 12.50. Groupon’s up to 22.70. Linkedin, which hit a high of 130 is at 76, but that had a little move here. These are sympathy moves. I don’t know if they will last. We shall see.
Again, it’s all about picking your poison. I’m not saying that a company with a $100 billion market cap company with only $3 billion in revenues isn’t going to $500 billion in market cap. No where am I saying that. We saw in 1999 just some crazy stuff going on. But I do want you to recognize something. As of today, Apple has a $424 billion market cap. Okay? With trailing 12 months revenues of $126 billion in revenues. You got me?
One is 3x revenues and that’s Apple. And the other one’s going to come out at 30x times revenues. Again…the market is the market is the market and we’ll see how the market reacts to it. That is the answer to your question.
Lunch with the CEO of Tupperware
A few months ago I won an auction for a charity event for the Boys and Girls Clubs for Central Florida. And I got to have lunch with a gentleman by the name of Rick Goings, who is the CEO of Tupperware. I took my son with me and I got more out of it than he did. It was a fabulous hour.
You know, we always hear every day about the bad in corporate America…about who’s being investigated and who should be going to jail…and I’m one of the ones who yells and screams. But I’m here also to tell you that the large part of corporate America are people like Rick Goings that runs his business well, works his tail off, and is community minded. I believe Rick was Chairman of the Boys and Girls Club for a couple years.
There was one thing I noticed. We went to their headquarters here in Orlando and had lunch. It was cafeteria style. And the CEO of Tupperware walked behind where you get your food, give a hug to the chef and gave a hug to the somebody who was cleaning the floor. I looked at my son and said to him:
“Remember that. That’s leadership. It’s not differentiating people who work at your company. Everybody matters. Everybody counts. And if you make everybody feel important about what they’re doing, you’re going have much better company.”
Well I got to see Rick Goings today as we opened the new Service Center of Central Florida. And he gave us a dissertation for 45 minutes. And I took 5 pages of notes from this gentleman. If you get a chance look up his bio. They don’t make’em much better than this gentleman. I told him to tell my son how he got here. He talked about how he learned about every other culture, speaks many languages and does everything he has to to be a success.
That’s what I tell everybody, especially the unemployed. Become the best you can possibly be. The most knowledgeable you can possibly be. And market yourself as much as you can to right people in your industry…and good things will happen.
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Gary Kaltbaum owns Kaltbaum Capital Management, LLC (“KCM”), an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The opinions expressed herein are those of Mr. Kaltbaum and may not reflect those of KCM. The information offered in this publication is general information that does not take into account the individual circumstances, financial situation or individual needs of an investor. The information herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but we cannot assure its accuracy or completeness. Neither the information nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. Any reference to past performance is not to be implied or construed as a guarantee of future results.
