Visa Inc. IPO Update

Although it is just our opinion that the Visa IPO will be derailed, we still assert that potential investors are still hypotized with the same exuberance that Bear Stearns’ chairman, James Cayne possessed when playing in the recent North American Bridge Chapionship in Detroit. 

According to The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Cayne was away from a cell phone and email during last summer, during the firm’s impending fiscal crisis.  Even our company, ScanMyPhotos.com is always accessable with iPhone, 24/7 Live Support and other tools to provide instant access.

In the case of Mr. Cayne, as quoted in the Journal [“Cayne on Golf Links, 10-Day Bridge Trip Amid Summer Turmoil”] by Kate Kelly [Nov 1], “[a]ttendees say Mr. Cayne has sometimes smoked marijuana at the end of the day during bridge tournaments.”  In the case of what might turn into an oversubscribed Visa IPO, unless Visa pulls the plug, we can’t help but ask what the new shareholders are also smoking? 

The IPO, along with its risk factors represents a new vanguard of greed in the eye of the financial markets’ tornado-like storm.

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Want to know more about lead plaintiff ScanMyPhotos.com?  Click here and read their daily blog: Tales from the World of Photo Scanning

If We Were in Vegas, Our Wager Would Be on Visa’s IPO Not Happening

[March 18, 2008 update:  Visa prices IPO at $44 a share, above expected range, raising a record $18 billion]

Based on the dire financial news reports, stock market turmoil – from Bear Stearns to soaring gold and other commodity prices and non-stop Federal Reserve interventions, we are thinking that the Visa IPO will not happen this week, or any time in the near future.

Let’s see who will be right – us or the thousands of gleefully greedy banks hoping to bailout and transfer partial ownership on an already battered investment community.

From this weekend’s broad-base of WayTooHigh.com readers and the page-viewed areas of interest – specifically about our Visa IPO commentaries – we still think the public offering will be canned or minimally, delayed.

We guess Visa’s public reason will be due to “market conditions,” but we can’t imagine investors ponying up to own a piece of a company that, according to their SEC filing could become insolvent if our merchant antitrust litigation is successful.

Recent Postings of Interest

Visa Inc. Files 10-K Annual Report, Amends S-1 Registration
key point: “Failure to successfully defend or settle the interchange litigation would result in liability that to the extent not covered by our retrospective responsibility plan could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows, or, in certain circumstances, even cause us to become insolvent.” 

“Visa: Bailing Out The Banks” (NY Times)

“Should You Join the Visa IPO Craze?” (via Charlotte Observer)

Visa Inc. IPO Largest in US History; First it was 5, then 10 and Now $18.8 Billion – That’s Some Rich Valuation Appreciation

Visa’s Inc’s® $10,000,000,000 Misguided Hedge From Litigation (WayTooHigh.com)

Understanding the Word “Insolvency” Is Crystal Clear (WayTooHigh.com)

Thousands of Banks Pin Hopes on Visa Inc. to Bail Them Out

“Significant Victory” Announced Against MasterCard by Class Plantiffs

DISCLAIMER – Just to be crystal clear, we are repeating our website disclaimer:  This informational web site was created to provide news and commentary updates only. None of the information posted on WayTooHigh.com is intended to constitute legal arguments; it reflects only the opinions of its co-editors and not of any other plaintiffs or other parties involved in the merchant antitrust litigation. The information is not guaranteed to be correct, complete, or current.  We make no warranty, express or implied, about the accuracy or reliability of the information posted by WayTooHigh.com or at any other Web site to which this site is linked.

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Want to know more about lead plaintiff ScanMyPhotos.com?  Click here and read their daily blog: Tales from the World of Photo Scanning

Will Visa IPO Hit the Wall, be Delayed or Cancelled?

Today’s newsline:

• Bear Stearns shares fall 47%.
• 28-days of secured funding from Fed and JPMorgan Chase for Bear Stearns [What’s up with this magic 28-days? First, the Fed extended credit to prop up the mortgage loans and now this.  Wonder if it’s all just to make sure the Visa IPO’s bank bailout doesn’t hit the skids?]
• Alan Schwartz, Bear Stearns’ CEO says, according to Reuters: “our liquidity position in the last 24 hours had significantly deteriorated.”
• Consumer sentiment slips in March to 16-year low.
• Fears big U.S. bank is in trouble.
• And, the #1 reason to worry: “President Bush Plans Bullish Speech On Economy.”

How the Fed’s $200-Billion Intervention Indirectly Boosts Visa’s IPO Valuation

Want to know more about lead plaintiff ScanMyPhotos.com?  Click hereand read their daily blog: Tales from the World of Photo Scanning

“Carlyle Capital in Default, on Brink of Collapse (via Reuters)

More trouble for the banks.  By way of pure coincidence, Carlyle Group, the buy out firm is in default on ($16.6 billion) – nearly as much money as Visa hopes to raise next week. 

Perhaps they can double-down.  

Can the banks hold on until the Visa Inc. IPO bailout? 

Click here to read the Reuters article.