track record - the best recorded performance in a particular athletics event at a particular track, the past achievements or performance of a person, organization, or product

by and large - on the whole; everything considered

iconic - relating to or of the nature of an icon: he became an iconic figure for directors around the world.

multiple - having or involving several parts, elements, or members: multiple occupancy | a multiple pile-up | a multiple birth.- numerous and often varied: trade-off - a balance achieved between two desirable but incompatible features; a compromise: a trade-off between objectivity and relevance.

bully pulpit - N. Am a public office or position of authority that provides its occupant with an opportunity to speak out on any issue: he could use the presidency as a bully pulpit to bring out the best in civic life.

take something on - undertake a task or responsibility, especially a difficult one:

the brass ring N. Amer. informal - success or reward.

at the end of the day Brit. informal - when everything is taken into consideration: at the end of the day I'm responsible for what happens in the school.

arbitrage - to simultaneously buy and sell securities, currency, or commodities in different markets or in derivative forms in order to take advantage of differing

prices for the same asset.

I’m generally skeptical of the entire IPO process. I tend to think it creates an exorbitant amount of costs, it creates a lot if distractions for management teams. The track record even today, to think of some even the most iconic interesting companies of the last year and a half that have gone public by and large, has been a very mixed track record. Whereas you see a bunch of other great companies who choose to take alternative forms of financing and it’s going really well.

I don’t think an IPO is very bad. You have to achieve a pretty significant level of financial performance even to be in consideration to. But if from there you want to take your company farther and further I think you need a public platform to make that happen. And … are the three people who chose to do that.

I want to bring you into this discussion as a guest because you are the CEO of a company, you’ve taken on multiple rounds of funding and you’ve decided to stay private rather than IPO right now. Why is that? We are not saying we're never going public. We felt we could continue to make long-term investments, we don't need cash, we didn't need currency to do acquisitions.

So we could fing a way to get our investors and employees a good return on their investment while still staying private. We felt it was a better trade-off to make. We were able to do that. We raised 100 mln dollars in dead equity to be able to affect that. And that's been a good decision for us, not every company can do that. And for some companies I think going public is a really good thing. They need the capital, the branding events, the currency. You know, the linked in has been really great thing for them. I don't think it applies to everybody, but it's not always the brass ring that people have to put it out there to be.

Bill, you said earlier that if a company wants to play in the big leads they have to go public. Is this the right strategy?

I think here is a small number of people that fit the criteria that these happens to fall into that allow you to stay private and they have confidence that the private market evaluation for their entities will remain high. There's another company called ... that noone knows about that fits all those criteria and it's chosen to stay private and wants to stay private for a lot of other reasons also. But yes if you want to be active in the acquisition market, in addition to things David said,

there's also this bully pulpit: you now have a microphone and you can tell everyone how you want the industry to be perceived. I mean I know the Blockbuster CEO felt that way when Hastings was out there with Wall Street behind him and the ability to talk from a broader perspective because of that. So whether that or acquisitions or access to capital, there are a lot of reasons you would want to be public trying to expand what you're doing constantly into the broader markets and have a bigger footprint.

What about the companies that wait too long and miss that window?

If we look at the end of the day the honesty of a company that's going to build a long-lasting sustainable repeatable business of the omen's come up it means the company's just arbitraging. At some point all of these things fall to earth. There is a bunch of examples of the last few months where we see businesses that may have gone out too early because they've raised too much money, there's a vector of expectations, this all hav picked up pressure. ... I think that sometimes just being private and having the ability to reflect on the long-term business, not try to focus on arbitraging, really focus on

long-term value, you know making consumers or the purchasors of your product happy is a really good thing.

I’m generally skeptical of the entire IPO process. I tend to think it creates an exorbitant amount of costs, it creates a lot of distractions for management teams. The track record even today by and large, has been a very mixed one. Some of the most iconic interesting companies of the last year and a half have gone public. You see a bunch of other great companies who choose to take alternative forms of financing. You have to achieve a pretty significant level of financial performance.

But if from there you want to take your company farther and further I think you need a public platform to make that happen. We’ve taken on multiple rounds of funding. We felt it was a better trade-off to make. I don't think it applies to everybody, but it's not always the brass ring that people have to put it out there to be.If a company wants to play in the big leads they have to go public. I think there is a small number of people that fit the criteria that these happen to fall into that allow you to stay private and they have confidence that the private market evaluation for their entities will remain high. There's also this bully pulpit: you now have a microphone and you can tell everyone how you want the industry to be perceived. Going public gives you the ability to talk from a broader perspective. A company may want to build a long-lasting sustainable repeatable business. At the end of the day, I think that sometimes just being private and having the ability to reflect on the long-term business, not try to focus on arbitraging, really focus on long-term value, you know making

consumers or the purchasers of your product happy is a really good thing.

1.I’m generally _____________ the entire IPO process. 2.I tend to think it creates an _____________ costs, it

creates a lot if distractions for management teams. 3.The _____________ even today ______and______, has been

a very mixed one. 4.Some of the most ____________ interesting companies of

the last year and a half have gone public. 5.You see a _______ of other great companies who choose

to take ______ forms of financing.

6.You have to achieve a pretty _________ level of financial performance.

7.But if from there you want to take your company farther and further I think you need a ______________ to make that happen.

8.We’ve ___________ multiple rounds of funding. 9.We felt it was a better ______________ to make. 10. I don't think it ________ everybody, but it's not always

the _______ that people have to put it out there to be.11. If a company wants to play _____________ they have to

go public. 12. I think there is a small number of people that

________ the criteria that these happen to ___________ that allow you to stay private and they have confidence that the private market evaluation for their entities will remain high.

13. There's also this ___________: you now have a microphone and you can tell everyone how you want the industry to be ___________.

14. Going public gives you the ability to talk ________________.

15. A company may want to build a long-lasting __________ repeatable business.

16. ______________, I think that sometimes just being private and having the ability to _____________ the long-term business, not try to focus on ________________, really focus on long-term value, you know making consumers or the purchasers of your product happy is a really good thing.