bubble popREUTERS/Mike Blake
GSSep 22 10:44
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The chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, one of the leading advisers to technology companies, has said the tech scene is "bubble-ish."
Goldman Sachs COO Gary Cohn fell short of describing the market as a fully developed bubble, however, saying that the heady valuations enjoyed by technology companies are different from those experienced in the first dot-com boom.
"There's a massive difference today, versus 2000 to 2001," he told attendees of The New New York, a conference panel hosted by the Partnership for New York City. "Today when you look at the companies we're talking about that are bubble-ish, they're real companies ... we can't envision our lives without them."
Cohn put things into perspective, using what he called "the Marc Andreessen point," which, in this case, is that the combined valuation of every so-called unicorn in the tech sector doesn't yet add up to the valuation of Silicon Valley's king: Apple.
"What I think we're smart enough to know is there's been a fundamental shift in the world we live in," Cohn told attendees of the conference.