Another year; another dollar.
Or another $1 billion, if you're Zynga. Which maybe you don't want to be. Truth is, in 2011 Zynga's stock debut put the ''Z'' in Zzzzzzzzzzzz.
So much for the year of the IPO.
Oh wait. This year -- 2012 -- is going to be the year of the IPO. Forget LinkedIn, Groupon, Pandora. They're so 2011. 2012 will be the year of Facebook. The next gold-plated Silicon Valley company has already moved into its McMansion in Menlo Park. New money. New digs. It's the way of the valley.
Maybe 2011 was the year of the new headquarters. Apple (AAPL) landed plans for its spaceship in Cupertino. Looks like the Meadowlands or a glass doughnut, depending on whether you're a football fan or just hungry.
Of course, Apple was the biggest business story of the year, but isn't it every year? The company lost its brilliant but bullying CEO. The world mourned and Walter Isaacson wrote a book that became a runaway bestseller. You haven't been able to turn on the TV or radio without seeing or hearing the author talking about Steve Jobs.
Things just don't slow down
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here, do they? Every year in Silicon Valley seems more stunning, chaotic, surprising, exhausting and exhilarating than the next. There is barely time to stop to mark the turn of the calendar from one year to the next.We're so busy making friends on Facebook and circling contacts on Google (GOOG)+ that it can be hard to pay attention to the person who is right in front of us. Still, social networking is bringing us together in new ways not imagined at the turn of the century. Twitter in 2011 helped topple governments in the Middle East and energize union members in the Midwest. No question, we're LinkedIn and linked-up like never before.
Throw in the vitriolic political discourse that permeates our daily lives (vitriol that will only grow as the presidential election approaches) and 2012 is likely to be the year that we are both more connected and more divided than ever before.
But divided or united, Silicon Valley business never stops moving forward. And it takes a nimble leader to stay in front of it all. Ask Carol Bartz, who got the heave-ho at Yahoo (YHOO), a company that might be celebrating its last new year in its current form.
Maybe 2011 was the year of the departed CEO.
Of course, Jobs stepped down, no longer able to run the company he co-founded. And over at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Léo Apotheker was shown the door, just about the time he found the executive washroom.
He started his tenure in November 2010 dogged by questions of why he wouldn't appear in public and in the end, it turns out, he never really showed up.
Meg Whitman is now leading the company, the third CEO in just over a year. And no, it's not true that the HP operations folks have installed a revolving door on the CEO suite.
But maybe a revolving door spinning at the speed of light could be the new symbol of Silicon Valley.
The sweep and speed of change in the valley in 2011 was breathtaking. It's hard to imagine a wilder ride in 2012, but you know it's coming. Try to enjoy it.
Happy New Year.
Contact Mike Cassidy at mcassidy@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5536. Follow him at Twitter.com/mikecassidy.