“I think it is the beginning of the new tech bubble focused on social (professional) networks. We are in the early stages of social commerce and the monetization logics are still fuzzy.

“The only logical explanation is short-term speculation, but these valuations are likely to go down very, very soon. I can only imagine the frenzy when Twitter and Groupon go public, not to mention Facebook or Zynga.”

Contact Venkatraman at 617-353-7117, venkat@bu.edu, Twitter @nvenkatraman