SUPRISE! Social Media Stocks are Running Higher Again

Just as some people called a top in privately held ‘unicorn’ companies this week, deriding the God given glamour that blesses the multitude of billion dollar Silicon Valley franchises, the old and tattered public varietal caught a bid.

Over the past week Z (up 21%), TWTR (up 11%), ANGI (up 10%), GRUB (up 10%), GRPN (up 7%), even YELP trended higher–breaking a long and hellish decline that has crushed the souls of many enthusiastic shareholders.

There is a very wide divergence between the publicly traded, reality based/market filtered social media space versus the Fred Wilson version in the private markets, one that produces over 1 new billion dollar valuation company–PER WEEK– in Silicon Valley.

Part of me thinks it’s all bullshit. Then again, I was a very early investor in the first internet boom, way back in 1995. There was a general malaise in the first dot com explosion for years, up until they broke out in 1998. Maybe the same thing will play out again. Or, maybe the landscape is forever changed, thanks to the perverse nature of the venture capital driven valuations in some of our best and youngest growth companies.