Andrew Ross Sorkin's New York Times column last week ran under the headline "How Valuable Is a Unicorn? Maybe Not as Much as It Claims to Be." It reported that eye-popping valuation for venture-capital-backed companies "may be a bit of myth — or perhaps wishful thinking." Citing Stanford research, it warned that the "headline" valuations were tricking people.
On the front of today's Times business section is an article about BuzzFeed building a movie studio in Southern California. In passing, the Times reports, "BuzzFeed, which is now valued at about $1.7 billion." No caveats about dilution or special terms for some investors or how that number may be a myth, a trick, or wishful thinking. It's almost enough to make one wonder whether the reporter of the BuzzFeed story, Sydney Ember, or her editor even bothered to read Sorkin's column, or, if they did, whether they took it seriously.