MSGF Finance Seminar – Business Valuation in the Era of Social Media

[Upcoming event: July 9th in Taipei, co-hosted by MSGF & CFA Society Taiwan]

According to Forbes, global social media users reached 4.9 billion by 2023, projected to reach 5.85 billion by 2027 with a compound annual growth rate of 26.2% (1).

The social media industry has witnessed the remarkable emergence of several billion and trillion-dollar businesses. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, is valued at 1.21 trillion USD (as of May 10, 2024) and earns 131.948 billion USD annually through advertising (Meta annual report 2023). YouTube, owned by Google, generates 31.51 billion USD in annual ad revenues (2).

Social media has not only revolutionized how people socialize and conduct business but has also demonstrated tremendous potential for growth and profitability.

In this seminar, Professor Kasper Meisner Nielsen will use the case of Twitter (now "X") to explore the unique valuation challenges that arise when applying traditional valuation techniques to the social media industry.

In January 2022, Elon Musk began acquiring an equity stake in Twitter Inc., resulting in a surprise hostile takeover bid to purchase and delist the company in April 2022. The offer of $54.20 per share represented a 38% premium on Twitter’s stock, suggesting a significant potential for additional value creation. In this sample class we will take a close look at the valuation of Twitter and apply valuation techniques to evaluate how Twitter can create value through strategic decisions. In practice, valuation is challenging because it requires modelling the future. These challenges are exacerbated in industries undergoing change due to new technology or changing consumer behavior.

During the seminar, you will learn about:

Basic valuation tools and techniques
Practical application of valuation to business cases
Valuation of apps and social network companies
Elon Musk’s decision to invest in the social media industry in 2022
What you can (and cannot) learn about business cases from valuation techniques

Guest speaker: Professor Kasper Meisner Nielsen, Professor of Finance at Copenhagen Business School & Adjunct Professor of Finance at HKUST Business School

Date: Tuesday, July 9, 2024

Time: 18:30-19:00, registration

19:00-20:00, seminar

*Light refreshment will be served

Venue: 升級會議中心 - 松江101館, 4F, No. 101, Songjiang Rd., Zhongshan Dist., Taipei

Register HERE.

See you in Taipei!