If these were $50M and not $50B your analysis would've been correct. But with such enormous amounts, it's not about money anymore, it's about power. And Facebook has the power to understand and influence what ppl think.
Are you suggesting that people buy Wal-Mart and Microsoft stock not because they expect to make money, but because Wal-Mart and Microsoft use their power to induce them to do so? Perhaps Microsoft will make your PC crash if you don't own enough of their stock? I am skeptical of your theory.
I'm suggesting GS would buy FB stock even if FB was loosing billions every year and there was no hope for future profits. In the same way GS and company are spending who knows how much on political campaigns and lobbing.
If you look at the market prices of newspapers, radios, TV stations, you'll see that they depend little on their earnings. The buyer pays for influence on the public opinion.
How much do you think will FB support be worth to GS during the next bailout? In understanding what are the common fears, arguments for and against. Even now GS manages many deals, parts of the society don't like - outsourcing, green house options trade, arab and chinese investors, etc.
I don't know whether your first statement is true, but I'm skeptical. Certainly there are some cases where newspapers continue to operate at a loss over many years, but in those cases we hear rumblings about hostile takeovers.
Regardless, I don't think GS comes close to getting that kind of editorial control or information access with this deal.
Although you do suggest the interesting point that Facebook private messages and even public postings could be a very valuable source of insider trading information.
