媒体大多将此描述成一场灾难，因为此前市场普遍预计Facebook首日将收于每股50美元左右，或至少也要在40多美元。这倒不是因为人们认为Facebook约1070亿美元的市值被低估，而是因为人人都认为IPO买家在首个交易日应获得10%或15%的回报。有幸获得全球最热的互联网公司IPO股票，就像Chili's餐厅里的服务员一样，有望获得不菲的小费。

    但这根本不是什么灾难。事实上，Facebook的几家投行——摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）、摩根大通（J.P. Morgan）和高盛（Goldman Sachs）对该股的定价或许太恰到好处了。

    Facebook掏钱请IPO承销商做一件事，就一件事——在IPO发行中筹集尽可能多的资金。Facebook可没有掏钱让他们定价时留个10-15%的折扣，以便摩根士丹利或高盛讨好高资产净值客户。或许在实际操作中这类做法司空见惯，但这不等于说这类做法就是对的。想象一下，如果你发现你的房地产经纪人将你的房屋标价比市场价低了50,000美元，只是因为她认为这样做，能带动她代理的其他房地产销售？

    去年，LinkedIn首日上市收盘大涨80%多，令几家承销商——包括上述投行中的几家——备受批评。该批！

    这次显然有些不同，Facebook的几家投行竭尽全力避免该股收盘时跌至38美元之下——这会使这些投行和他们的客户非常难堪。实际情况是Facebook拿到了市场愿意给出的所有钱。如果它能继续创造强劲的利润率，那么该股股价将上涨，上市首日的买家最终将获得回报。如果它近期的增长放缓成为趋势，那么该股可能走上另一条路。

    但IPO的主要目的是募集现金。Facebook的投行们做对了，即便所有人都不希望看到这一幕。

    译者：早稻米

    The typical media narrative, of course, is catastrophic. Conventional wisdom had been that Facebook would close the day up around $50 per share, or at least in the low $40's. Not because people actually thought Facebook was undervalued at around $107 billion, but because everyone thinks IPO buyers deserve an extra 10% or 15% reward on the first day of trading. As if getting access to shares in the world's hottest Internet company is the investor equivalent of being a server at Chili's.

    But there is no catastrophe here. In fact, Facebook bankers like Morgan Stanley (MS), J.P. Morgan (JPM) and Goldman Sachs (GS) might have priced the company just about perfectly.

    Facebook paid its IPO underwriters to do one job, and one job only: Generate the most money possible through the initial public offering of Facebook stock. It did not pay them to offer 10-15% discounts so that Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs could ingratiate themselves to high-net-worth clients. That may be how it usually works in practice, but that doesn't make it right. Imagine if you found out your real estate broker had priced your home for $50,000 below market value because she thought it would generate more interactions with buyers for her other properties?

    Last year, LinkedIn (LNKD) bankers -- including some of the same firms -- took some heat when the company's shares closed their first day of trading up more than 80%. It was deserved.

    Now there obviously are some shades of gray here, as Facebook's bankers worked furiously to prevent the price from falling below $38 in the market's final moments -- an event that would have embarrassed both the bankers and their client. But the reality is that Facebook got as much money today as the market was ready to give. If it continues to generate strong margins, then its price will rise and today's buyers will be ultimately rewarded. If its recent growth slowdown becomes a trend, then it could go the other way.

    But an IPO is a single-day event, for the primary purpose of generating issuer cash. And Facebook's bankers got it right, even if it was the last thing anyone expected.