Tech Sector Surge Based on Real Growth: CEO
By: While many investors are fearful of another dot-com bubble due to the sudden surge of activity in the tech sector, a number of things have changed since then, says one CEO who called the dot-com collapse in 1998.
"The internet and technology companies that we are talking about now all, as I understand it, have real revenues, real earnings, real competitive advantage and real growth," Jonathan Cohen, CEO TICC Capital , which provides financing for smaller tech companies, told CNBC on Wednesday.
"The companies that are enjoying the very highest and sort of perhaps the most aggressive valuations are in most cases private companies, meaning that they're smaller in terms of their impact in the capital markets," said Cohen.
"The madness and the sort of divorce from reality situation that we had in 1999 doesn't really exist in the public market," Cohen explained.
From 1998 to 2000 nearly 1,500 technology companies went public, raising $114 billion. That avalanche of capital was laid at the doorstep of countless companies whose business would never turn a profit.
"The environment that we saw in 1998, 1999 there were companies literally coming public with no profits and there were companies coming public with no revenues and very limited prospects for either—in that way the world has changed," Cohen went on to say.
After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, there was a decade long dry spell where internet companies were quiet and evolving new strategies, he said.
"There are some really interesting technology companies accessing the private markets right now that will ultimately access the public markets," Cohen concluded.
The estimated market caps for several hot companies, include: Facebook $65 billion, Groupon $15 billion, Zynga $10 billion and Twitter $8- to- $10 billion.
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