(Image source: Bloomberg )

 

BY JIM FLINK

ANCHOR ZACH TOOMBS

 

Buy -- at any price.

 

That’s the advice from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, when broached on the subject of the Facebook IPO.  Here’s the exclusive interview from Bloomberg .

 

“I would invest in Facebook and I don’t care what the opening price is.  And I would for good reason if I were an investor looking to make money.

 

Wozniak goes on to compare Mark Zuckerberg as a combination of Steve Jobs and the Woz himself. When Facebook goes public Friday, it’s expected to raise close to $100B.

 

The ferver is already building for the stock -- expected to be offered between $28 and $35 per share.  CNET notes...

 

“Wozniak may have trouble getting in on the ground floor and will likely have to wait until after the stock hits the market. Reports say that Facebook's IPO is already oversubscribed.” 

 

Oversubscribed. And -- to some -- overhyped.  Value walk says, Facebook is no slam dunk.

 

“... statements like these are troubling to hear … Facebook is already trading at a large premium ...  There is always the chance that Facebook will be the next Apple, but the odds are against it. For every company like Apple, there are numerous firms, which have failed some point along the way.”

 

And while Wozniak is confident in the future of Facebook, Chip Chick says, there may be another reason for that.

 

“Fusion-io, a business dedicated to making flash memory, boasts Wozniak as their chief scientist. Facebook accounts for an incredible 36% of Fusion-io’s revenue, so Wozniak has good reason to make a hefty bet on Facebook – his company probably wouldn’t be relying on them if confidence was lacking.”

 

The Sacramento Bee talked with another billionaire who takes a more guarded view of Friday’s public offering.

 

“...multibillionaire Warren Buffett is non-committal on Facebook's pending initial public offering ...CEO Buffett … recently told shareholders in his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. that IPOs are almost always bad investments, due to the overblown hype-to-actual value ratio.”

 

Buffett -- by the way -- tells the Bee, investors should never buy on news-driven hype.  Rather ask yourself the question, how’s this company going to do 10 years from now?