Chart of the Day: Mastercard vs Visa
When Mastercard went public in May 2006 its opening price was $40.30 per share; today it's over $200. What are the chances that something similar is going to happen with Visa? About zero:

(Incidentally, American Express is worth about $48 billion, somewhere in the middle there.)
There are good reasons why Visa might be worth more than MasterCard, but $30 billion more? Count me in for the long-Mastercard, short-Visa relative value play. In any case, if Visa simply can't quintuple in value over the next two years: if it did, it would be worth $290 billion, and be the third most valuable company in the US, after Exxon Mobil and GE.
All the same, I'm heartened by the nice pop in Visa shares today. They priced above their indicated range, and still managed to end thd day up more than 28% from the IPO price. Amidst all the gloom and chaos, it seems that big deals can still get done - in the equity markets, at least, if not in the debt markets.
(Via Abnormal Returns)
- What's a Super-Senior Tranche?
- Dec 1 2008 9:25PM EST
- Extra Credit, Monday Edition
- Dec 1 2008 6:29PM EST
- Zimbabwe: When Even the Central Bank Can't Keep Up
- Dec 1 2008 5:07PM EST
- Genius
- Dec 1 2008 4:14PM EST
- Adventures in Shopping, Black Friday Edition
- Dec 1 2008 3:55PM EST
- Endowments Dump Private Equity Stakes
- Dec 1 2008 3:22PM EST
- Ignoring the Stock Market
- Dec 1 2008 1:06PM EST
- When Mutual Funds Reopen for Business
- Dec 1 2008 11:50AM EST
- Credit Card Crunch
- Dec 1 2008 11:32AM EST
- Art: The Case of Ana Tzarev
- Dec 1 2008 10:13AM EST
- Tanta, RIP
- Dec 1 2008 1:24AM EST
- Extra Credit, Sunday Edition
- Nov 30 2008 11:29PM EST
- Geithner isn't Rubin
- Nov 30 2008 12:46PM EST
- Ben Stein Watch: November 30, 2008
- Nov 29 2008 11:22PM EST
- Rubin's Teflon Finally Wears Off
- Nov 29 2008 3:11PM EST
Categories
Links
- Email Felix Salmon
- Alphaville

- Marginal Revolution

- The Panelist

- FP Passport

- Overcoming Bias

- Andrew Leonard

- Barry Ritholtz

- Brad Setser

- Carbon Tax Center

- Calculated Risk

- Greg Mankiw

- Free Exchange

- Dean Baker

- Alexander Campbell

- Kash Mansori

- The Bayesian Heresy

- A Fistful of Euros

- John Quiggin

- Michael Mandel

- Lance Knobel

- Mark Thoma

- Dan Gross

- Curbed

- Streetsblog

- Chris Anderson

- Deal Journal

- MarketBeat

- DealBook

- DealBreaker

- Carl Bialik

- Michelle Leder

- Brad DeLong

- The Epicurean Dealmaker

- Naked Capitalism

- Ultimi Barbarorum

- Econospeak

- Fortune: Daily Briefing

- Financial Crookery










