"I don't want a bunch of snot-nosed, twenty-five year old stock analysts with Harvard MBAs determining the future of our business."
I am not sure that is an exact quote, but that was close to what I said to my partners after we had looked into taking our business public. And my father warned us that we would not like our life in a fish bowl, having our every move and most of our decisions in the public record. Add to that today's cost and hassle of Sarbanes-Oxley and you have quite a list of reasons not to go public with your venture.
But, now here is another reason from Red Herring:
Psychologists from Princeton University said Tuesday they’ve found a strong relationship between the short-term success of an initial public offering and how fluently investors can pronounce the name of a company and its ticker symbol....So strong was this effect that if an investor started out with $1,000 and invested it in companies with the 10 easiest-to-pronounce tickers on the market--those similar to GOOG (Google)--she would earn $333 more than if she had invested in the 10 hardest-to-pronounce tickers, similar to VYYO (Vyyo Inc).
"This research shows that people take mental shortcuts, even when it comes to their investments, when it would seem that they would want to be most rational," said Danny Oppenheimer, assistant professor of psychology at Princeton University.
Ah, yes. The rational decision making process of the public stock market. Another good reason to stay private!
