Why I picked up the article:
I thought the number of IPOs is decreasing only in Japan because of its
economic situation. But as the article suggest, a flight from being public is a
matter of the world. We have discussed similar topic of state capitalism in the
former debate. This time I want to put the situation in order by discussion.
Discussion:
What are the merits and the demerits of being public?
Why Zack didn’t want Facebook to be public? And what about other “go
private” companies?
Do you think the situation matter as the Economist suggest?
Summary:
The public company was the invention of the mid 19th industrial age. It
provides the giants (motors, railway, irons) with capital. In the 21st internet
age, the picture changes. Zack resisted going public and wants Facebook in
private for as long as he could. Why?
Numbers
# of public companies/ ▲38% in America ▲48% in Britain (since1997)
# of
IPOs in each year/ 165(in 1980-2000) 30(in 2001-2009) ▲135 annually
Situation
(1) The burden of law
requirements/ quarterly reports/
(2) The flourish of
alternative corporate forms/ “go private”/ SOEs/ family conglomerates
(3) Resources without
being public/access to capital/ limited liability/ professional managers
The Economist suggestion
They worry about the decline of a public company for 3 reasons.
(1) Without IPO, entrepreneurs couldn’t make innovation or risky bets.
(2) Companies wouldn’t open their info and become dark.
(3) Ordinary people couldn’t get a chance to invest to future Google.
They think make something change, especially politicians need to easing
regulation to make capitalism popular again. Or, the result is that ever more
business is conducted in the dark, with rich insiders playing a more powerful
role.
Other discussion of this week:
[Special report] [International Banking]
Winners and losers World, here we come
1. Do you have bank accounts in international banks such as Citi bank? Why do you have?
2. Do you think Japanese banks should go abroad and do retail business?
[Business] [Commercial aircraft]
Duelling the duopolies
1. Do you think Japan can win the international competition and break the duopolies?
2. Do you think Japanese government should put importance on aircraft industry and support it?
[Graphic details] [Corruption and development]
Corrosive corruption
1. What criteria can describe a country "good"?
This week was the first time of season 4. We were 9 people and gathered at Saint-Marc Cafe in Kanda. One of them was a new comer who got to know our study group by her friend. 4 topics we discussed this week. "The endangered public company" from Leaders section describes the changing situation around public company. I was impressed at that kind of stream is world wide trend. This week The economist also published a special report related to international banking. It was interesting because it describes digitization of retail business in banking.
This week was the first time of season 4. We were 9 people and gathered at Saint-Marc Cafe in Kanda. One of them was a new comer who got to know our study group by her friend. 4 topics we discussed this week. "The endangered public company" from Leaders section describes the changing situation around public company. I was impressed at that kind of stream is world wide trend. This week The economist also published a special report related to international banking. It was interesting because it describes digitization of retail business in banking.
