"We risk becoming the best informed society that has ever died of ignorance"
- Rubén Blades

"You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it"
- Art Buchwald

"It's getting exciting now, two and one-half. Think of everything we've accomplished, man. Out these windows, we will view the collapse of financial history. One step closer to economic equilibrium"
- Tyler Durden

"It is your corrupt we claim. It is your evil that will be sought by us. With every breath, we shall hunt them down."
- Boondock Saints

Monday, December 12, 2016

Trivago IPO Should Be Illegal


Simply put: This is f__king disturbing and the buyers deserve to get burned. You've all lost your minds. It should be illegal to do this. How could Trivago expect to compete with this IPO? It's like they want to puke this trash on the market in the "hope" of Priceline buying them. You're all insane.
Just in time for the hectic holiday travel season, Trivago (TRVG – proposed) is the marquee name on the IPO Calendar. The company, known for its ad slogan “Never Pay Full Price on Hotels,” is set to go public at the end of the week. Wall Street is paying attention because the online travel sector is hot – reflected by a 22.2 percent jump this year in the stock of Priceline. (Perhaps it doesn’t hurt that Holiday Inn is playing on Broadway, giving a new generation of theater-goers a chance to fall in love with “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” and other classics from the 1942 film with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.)

Based in Dusseldorf, Germany, Trivago aims to dominate online search for hotels. It is the leading brand of travel B.V.  Bankers plan to offer 28.5 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) of travel B.V. (Trivago N.V.) in the price range of $13 to $15 each on Thursday night, the 15th, to start trading Friday morning, Dec. 16th, on the NASDAQ. The IPO is likely to raise about $399.4 million, based on the mid-point of that price range.

Trivago’s advertiser base includes online travel agents, hotel chains and independent hotels. The Priceline Group Inc. provided 43 percent of Trivago’s total revenue for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2016, up from 27 percent during the same period in 2015, according to the prospectus. Majority shareholder Expedia, a Priceline rival, will still control Trivago after the IPO, the prospectus says.

Priceline, of course, has come a long way since it went public in March 1999 during the height of the dot-com boom. The IPO was priced at $16 a share and closed at $69 on its first day of trading. Fast forward to late 2016: Priceline’s stock closed on Friday, Dec. 9, 2016, on NASDAQ at $1,557.98 – up 22.2 percent from its close at $1,274.95 on Dec. 31, 2015.