If you were the managers and venture capitalists behind Palo Alto’s PayPal, you’d take it public. And that is what they hope to do in an $80 million offering that will test the limits of investor tolerance and financial market gullibility.
In an era where international terrorism is paid for in the shadows of the world financial system, the United States needs a publicly traded electronic money service that operates on the cusp of bank regulatory laws as much as it does an anthrax epidemic. But Silicon Valley VCs — along with the lawyers, consultants, accountants and other professional service providers dependent on the VC deal stream — want this and other IPOs to succeed.
