Visa prices IPO at $44 a share, above expected range, raising a record $18 billion

The lessons of greed by leading financial institutions have not been learned – click here.   

A funny thing happened on the way to “Vegas,” for those readers of the earlier posts, including [“If We Were in Vegas, Our Wager Would Be on Visa’s IPO Not Happening,”]. 

Several weeks ago we began raising the question of whether the Visa IPO would be delayed or derailed.  After the most recent financial market earthquakes, we opined for the latter and with good reason.  We strongly felt that investors would be more risk adverse, pay closer attention to the IPO risk factors and analyze the banks’ need to bail out from Visa. 

However, the historic moves within the past 48-hours by the Federal Reserve by adding liquidity, covering the Bear Stearns takeover and announcing new protocols to lower key interest rates all helped temporarily prop up the financial markets.  Perhaps just long enough to keep the IPO window open for Visa’s thousands of member banks to run for the hills. 

WayTooHigh.com – The Credit Card Interchange Report will be closely monitoring and updating the events of the next few days and beyond.

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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

Visa, Inc. Due Diligence: Have Investors Talked With Merchants?

After reading the Visa, Inc. IPO Risk Factors, we wonder whether investors will actually stop by and talk with the millions of merchants, companies and organizations which are forced to accept MasterCard and Visa – the two control a whopping 80% market share of all electronic payment processing solutions.  For us, the key word is “Interchange” and the below thousand plus news and commentary postings by WayTooHigh.com provides just the start.

Visa and MasterCard Adjusting Interchange Rates

“Visa, Inc. FORM S-4 SEC Registration Statement” (click here to view the SEC filing)

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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

What is the Federal Reserve’s Role in the Visa IPO?

Is it just a coincidence that the Federal Reserve is expected to implement the steepest rate cut in nearly three decades just hours before the planned Visa IPO?  

Today’s market turmoil [Paulson admits U.S. economy in sharp decline] was just handed carefully crafted rose-colored glasses to wear.  But, it might crack tomorrow and lead to one more financial woe, as Visa Inc. investors get caught as the melodic music stops and there are fewer chairs left in the game.

Why Should The Public Bail Out Visa and the Banks?

With millions of families forced to vacate their foreclosed homes due to unchecked greed by the banks and financial institutions – dispatched from their oversight responsibilities, in just two days the public is poised to again bail out the banks.  This just hours after the Federal Reserve handed out billions in public fund to bail out Wall Street.  Now, round two. 

The banks which own Visa, the largest credit card association, are again moments away from scoring another multibillion dollar windfall.  No, they are not getting the funds by raising interchange rates – that is scheduled for April 1st. 

Instead, the pubic is lining up to hand over billions to the thousands of banks looking for their next fix.  This time, the ill-advised investors are not studying the SEC documents and catastrophic risk factors that could lead to Visa’s insolvency.  These are not our words, but Visa’s – click here.

With the record number (nearly three times the previous high) of visitors to WayTooHigh.com – The Credit Card Interchange Report, today signals a shift in philosophy.  Today, more people are being cautioned that if our merchant interchange litigation is successful, it could lead to the demise of Visa.  Or, will the Federal Reserve then step in and refund investor’s losses?

“Eroding Confidence Stings Bank Shares” – IHT

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

Visa IPO Derailed, Suggests Mitch Goldstone

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

With thirty-minutes until the U.S. financial markets open, Mitch Goldstone, co-editor of WayTooHigh.com – The Credit Card Interchange Report is making the call that this week’s planned multi-billion dollar exit parachute for  thousands of banks which own the giant credit card association will fizzle.  The Visa IPO was planned as the nation’s most ambitious public offering, yet Visa Inc. is also facing the largest antitrust litigation too, one which in their own words could cause the credit card processing firm to become insolvent if we are successful.

This should now come as no surprise, especially after former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan described the financial mess as being the worst since WWII: “Greenspan Worns of Worst Crisis Since 1945.”

Obviously, the banks think differently, especially JP Morgan Chase, which is much more than a lead underwriter.  Did you know that they are also a primary investor in Visa Inc and own one of the largest Visa and MasterCard electronic payment processors, Chase Paymentech?

“I had more than a feeling that the IPO was dead on arrival several weeks ago and have been calling attention to the reasons ever since,” said Goldstone, who is lead plaintiff in the merchant interchange class-action against Visa, MasterCard and major banks.  On March 1st, WayTooHigh.com, which has been chronicling the interchange battle with daily news and commentary updates since early 2005, had this posting:  Why the Visa Inc. IPO Might be Delayed for Shelved?   Several other similar commentaries were subsequently published by WayTooHigh.com. 

“Although there have been no other public reports which we read suggesting Visa Inc. might delay or cancel its IPO, we are not surprised.  After all, the banks were equally in the dark when it came to not protecting themselves and shareholders by acting to thwart the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and other costly missteps,” said Goldstone.

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