Wall Street Wants Craiglist To Go Public

Opinion Journal reports:

By almost any measure, Craigslist is a phenomenal success. It is the seventh-most-popular Web site in the world, according to the people who measure these things. The free online-classifieds site has become the nightmare of newspaper executives everywhere it launches a list. While it does not release financial statements, no one doubts--and its chief executive does not dispute--that it is comfortably profitable and has been so since 1999, about the time most other children of the dot-com boom started running out of cash.

All the same, no one really questions that Craigslist could be bigger--much, much bigger. The company took in a relatively paltry $25 million or so in revenue last year, while its peers among the Internet's top 10 raked in billions. Since its founding, Craigslist has been aggressively passive (newspapermen might say passively aggressive) about monetizing its huge audience and user base.

This could be a huge IPO if Craig gives the thumbs up someday.