The cat's out of the bag ... this was part of our 2012 April Fool's Day joke. Fool on!
To our friends, to family, to any twerps who doubted us, and to the many millions who make The Motley Fool home to the world's greatest investment community:
We finally have the opportunity to fulfill our destiny. A day that many of you have asked for -- begged for, really -- is here.
The Motley Fool is going public.
You got it right.
We're tying our wagon to a moonbeam and creating the mother of all exit strategies designed to get as many shares as possible into the hands of Fools like you.
Here are five key things to know about our IPO:
1. Available to Fools ONLY
Our top priority is to make sure you can buy as many shares of our company as possible before the stock trades on the open market. We've always let you go first in our membership portfolios; this is no different. These shares are available only to you, today, at Fool.com.
2. Your Pre-IPO Price
We've been working ridiculously hard for the last 4.5 weeks to make sure we nail this. And our team of quantitative stars -- including two past winners of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences -- has set our pre-IPO price of $4.01. Wait till you hear how ridiculous of a bargain that is.
3. Expected First Trade
That same team estimates that our stock will trade around $28 when it debuts tomorrow morning. Our underwriter-auditor Coopers & Andersen priced the offering at $16 to $18 per ticket (el cheapo, for reasons explained below). We fully expect to blow through that price as our PR team whips up a media frenzy at daybreak.
Simply put, our models cannot generate a scenario where Motley Fool stock does not make it past $25 per share. Think about this: You will make four to seven times your money within a day.
4. The Exhaustive Approach to Supply
We've waited nearly 20 years to be able to set up a system like this. Nothing will stop it now. In order to guarantee that every Motley Fool member has access to an abundance of shares at that $4.01 price, we two founders will be selling virtually our entire stake in the pre-after-hours market today.
We'll do fine, even with that sinful discount -- don't worry about us. What you should be worrying about is how your offspring will treat you if you look this seven-bagger gift horse in the mouth.
5. Deadline: Midnight Tonight
And there's no reason to wait for that deadline.
We have already begun taking orders, and we're thrilled by the early response. There's no sales pitch necessary here. You're buying a company you know, from us, with a community of buyers alongside you. And while we obviously hope you'll consider holding your shares for the long term, we won't frown at anyone selling a seven-bagger in less than 24 hours.
PLACE YOUR ORDER HERE
To place your order, first send us an email simply expressing your interest. We'll bounce back the digital forms to you instantly. (They take a minute to fill out.)
And since there are a few hundred of us just sitting and taking your orders today, how about delighting us with a tidbit on what you plan to do with your quick winnings?
Just send us an email:
Feel free to add any thoughts, questions, or suggestions as well.
What an exciting time. We are changing the world together!
Stay hungry, stay Foolish.
David and Tom Gardner
P.S. Do not forget! The deadline is midnight tonight.
P.P.S. You can read our partial S-1 filing with the SEC by clicking here. Even though under the new JOBS Act, we could sell stock to you without such boring details as a prospectus or "audited" financials, we're thrilled to be serving up our unbelievable business model and transparent culture to you at a discount once only available to crony capitalists and our elected officials. These are the same clowns who suckered people into buying lottery tickets this week.
P.P.P.S. Full disclosure: In just the past few days, we received a notice of material weakness in our financial controls that temporarily threw a bunch of our numbers out of whack. Apparently, this is not unusual for companies going public, so no big deal. The irregularities stem from our SUCSOI method of reporting adjusted net income. This is probably why our underwriter-auditor priced our shares all the way down at $16 to $18. We have decided to largely bite our tongues and allow these insane accusations to stand, because the SEC-mandated "quiet period" forbids us from talking up our stock (as if we'd need to). We're confident in our belief that -- like us -- you'll brush this stuff off. If there's a silver lining to this dark cloud, it's that we're almost out, and all this naysaying leaves us beautifully well-positioned to exceed expectations with an IPO baby that, having seen the ultrasound, I can promise you is not one of those uglies.
Click here to see the reveal article explaining this Motley Fool April Fools' Day joke.
