That was my experience in returning to my alma mater, Harvard, this weekend, and I don't believe that Facebook's penetration at the campus where it was born is any greater than it is anywhere else. Facebook has insinuated itself into every particle of peoples' existence in a very fast way, but particularly in the people who are trying to figure out their preferences.
That, alone, makes the initial public offering worth participating in.
Now, I am going to make some assumptions that purists won't want to hear. I am going to make some judgments that will be considered lightweight, if not cavalier.
But I do not care that Facebook's profit declined versus the previous quarter. The fact is that the revenue has already touched $1 billion for the quarter, and the company is profitable.
I do not care that the company is paying for patents and that it has lots of expenses I can't get my arms around.
Facebook got to $1 billion so fast that I have to believe there is much more behind it.
I do not care that the deal seems a little more opaque than usual. That's even despite the fine print of the Instagram purchase being pretty annoying, when you think about how quickly the deal was arrived at and with how little consultation there was--none--with the board.
What I care about is that Facebook has the demographic the advertisers want, and it has that "demo" in a social and mobile way, so it is genuine.That means if any one big advertiser goes all in--like Procter & Gamble (PG), which looks like it is in fact doing so--then everyone else in the category has to go all in.
That's what happens when you seek the coveted demo. The others must seek, too.
I saw nothing in what I read last night in the prospectus that makes me feel any different about that--which means I am not dissuaded from being involved in the deal if I can get any shares.
OK, now that the rigorous out there have panned me, keep in mind that I have said to stay away from Yelp (YELP), from Groupon (GRPN), from Pandora (P) and from Zynga (ZNGA). Every one of these, I have urged you to sell.
Facebook is not one I am urging you to sell. This is one I am still, as of this prospectus, urging you to buy.
There is simply too much profitable growth here, and too much opportunity for advertisers on Facebook to reach prospective clients before those clients have made up their minds about what brands to choose for the rest of their lives. So do not sneer at trying to get some shares of what is quickly shaping up to be the biggest initial public offering in the history of stocks.
Disclosures: Cramer does not have positions in any of the stocks mentioned.
