Forget Facebook, Remember Valassis

One of my colleagues lacks confidence in Facebook’s business model. As he wrote in a June 5th email, “It looks like Facebook is a questionable vehicle for generating sales for its advertisers. The best has always been direct mail.” And he believes that direct mail’s best investment is Valassis thanks to its steady cash flow generation.

My colleague believes that 2011′s rocky financial results were not a reflection of deep problems with Valassis. He described the “bumps” as “too much of a good thing...Last summer people used the coupons far faster than expected. This was because of a bad economy.”