Zadeva močno spominja na drugo polovico 1990-ih, na velik tehnološki balon, ki se je kazal v strašanski rasti NASDAQ indeksa. Tedanji balon se je seveda razpočil v trenutku, ko tehnološka podjetja z nizkimi prihodki in negativnimi dobički niso bila več sposobna dobiti financiranja na kapitalskem trgu. Danes se dogaja podobna zadeva, zaradi nizkih obrestnih mer in pomanjkanja donosov tudi bolj previden kapital drvi v investicije v tehnološke start-upe. Ostali pa v strahu, da “ne bi česa zamudili”. V podjetja kot so Uber, Slack in Palantir Technologies, ki so praktično iz nič postala vredna več kot milijardo dolarjev. Toda takšnih visoko prevrednotenih tehnoloških podjetij, vrednih več kot milijardo dolarjev, je danes že 107.

V Sililicjevi dolini se je spet napihnil ogromen balon. Le da si nihče ne upa besedice balon povedati na glas. Spodaj je link na dober članek v New York Timesu.

Today, people see shades of 2000 in the enormous valuations assigned to private companies like Uber, the on-demand cab company, which is raising $1.5 billion at terms that deem the company worth $50 billion, and Slack, the corporate messaging service that is about a year old and valued at $2.8 billion in its latest funding round.

A few years ago private companies worth more than $1 billion were rare enough that venture capitalists called them “unicorns.” Today, there are 107, according to CB Insights, enough that venture capitalists had to create a second term — “decacorn” — for private companies like Uber and the data analysis company Palantir Technologies that are worth more than $10 billion.

Nobody doubts that many of tech’s unicorns are indeed real businesses and that some could be with us for decades. But because of low interest rates, tech companies are raising gobs of money from investors whose desperate need for returns has pushed them into riskier territory. Start-ups have begun attracting money from hedge and mutual funds that don’t usually invest in tech companies before they are public.

Valuations — and there is no real standard for determining how much a private company is worth — are inflating, leading some people to worry that investment decisions are being guided by something venture capitalists call FOMO — the fear of missing out.

Vir: New York Times