This analogy isn't correct - and I am surprised that there are experts using it in their analysis.
It would be like selling 10 of the bricks from the house for $10, and then the guy you sell them to turns around and sells them for $20. Far from being upset, you now realize that the remainder of your 150 bricks just doubled in value.
To complicate the analogy further, you would need to sell 10 bricks to 10 different people and spend a month negotiating the price to a point where everybody agrees on the same price - which is the problem with an IPO.
There are even further complications with LinkedIn in particular, but needless to say the analogy falls apart very quickly.
But I tore down that wall and sold those 10 bricks so I could build an addition to house the 5 new kids I'd like to have soon and grow my family.
It's not as important that my remaining 150 bricks are more valuable. I can't sell those right now. But I could have built an addition 2X the size if I had gotten 2X cash for the bricks I sold.
It would be like selling 10 of the bricks from the house for $10, and then the guy you sell them to turns around and sells them for $20. Far from being upset, you now realize that the remainder of your 150 bricks just doubled in value.
To complicate the analogy further, you would need to sell 10 bricks to 10 different people and spend a month negotiating the price to a point where everybody agrees on the same price - which is the problem with an IPO.
There are even further complications with LinkedIn in particular, but needless to say the analogy falls apart very quickly.