Joey Levin is the CEO of IAC. He addresses IAC's cash position and balance sheet strength during an economic downturn.
Insight
Levin: Private market participants are incentivized to maintain pretend valuations
“Everyone in the ecosystem is incentivized and able to maintain sort of pretend valuations. Meaning the investors want to keep their marks where they are. Their LPs actually want them to keep their marks where they are because they don't want to look bad. The c…”
Opinion
Levin: Younger worker entitlement stems from bull markets and bailouts
“I think that, that the level of entitlement that we see in, in the younger generation of that year or those years is, is I think related to That a general bull market supported by when things go wrong, don't worry somebody else comes to the rescue externally.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Levin: Valuation multiples will not expand soon nor snap back
“There's no snapback, you know, even if you say, earnings take time to grow. Earnings don't typically, at large, grow in multiples. They grow in You know, increments, percentages, and when that happens, markets grow and valuations grow, but there's no catalyst …”
Insight
Levin: Excessive cash reserves harmed more startups than they helped
“I do think it was dangerous for a lot of companies to be overstuffed with cash, and I think that that was a danger to more companies than it was a help to.”
Opinion
Levin: The structural design of SPACs is completely insane
“The way the SPAC works, you build a company for as long as it takes you to build a company, you get it to a position where you think it can maybe endure the public markets, and then in that critical moment, you give somebody else who doesn't know your company …”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Levin: Elevated employee workplace demands will rebalance in a few years
“Look, it, we're at a period where a lot of things are cyclical, and I think that will come back into balance over the next few years.”