I thought BFLS was great in its creation, but feel that it has majorly failed in execution.
I think that because of the way this IPO was structured, there are several 'layers' to it which had appeal to different people for different reasons. One (perhaps obvious) benefit seemed to be that it would be a great way to get one's hands on a Single much quicker than ordering from BFL directly. Many people here have been trying to bypass the legendary/infamous "4-6 week" waiting line from BFL by buying up other's people's places in line, and this IPO seemingly opened a door for just that.
I don't presume to speak for Inaba, but I don't believe his original intent was to provide a 'move to the front of the Single line' service. The IPO's intent was to offer hashrate backed by physical hardware, with the added bonus/twist of allowing investors to trade in shares for that hardware. This was something not seen before on GLBSE.
My own attraction to BFLS shares was simply the ROI and the hassle-free nature of offsite mining. I wasn't interested in trading shares for a Single. I have no (or rather, very little) available infrastructure or desire to support significant mining hardware. Running a PC and Single(s) is not noise-free and generates heat. Neither of which is very appealing to me. What *is* appealing is the potential to purchase the equivalent of a Single and earn mining income, without any of the associated hassles.
My original, and simplistic, calculation went something like this:
(1) Order 1 Single from BFL:
Single cost: $600
Shipping: $30
Annual power cost: $50
TOTAL: $680 (first year)
(2) Purchase 200 shares of BFLS:
Share cost: 200 * 0.7 = 140BTC = $680 (assuming 1BTC = $4.85)
Shipping: $0
Annual power cost: $0
TOTAL: $680 (first year)
It seemed a no-brainer to purchase some BFLS shares instead of ordering a Single from BFL. Not to mention the "4-6 week" delivery delay from BFL. Now, we know it wasn't possible to purchase 200 shares at the IPO price of 0.7BTC/share. The price was bid up significantly higher. But even at 0.8 (or whatever the top few hundred shares were going for), it was a good deal.
Consider that a BFLS share at 0.8BTC/4Mhash is the equivalent of 1BTC/5Mhash. Compare to a 5Mhash Gigamining share (gigavps's recent IPO) currently going for 1.2 to 1.25 BTC/share. So from solely an ROI point of view (the contract details of Gigamining and BFLS are very different), a BFLS share is arguably a significantly better value.
From all accounts I'd say the BFLS IPO has been very successful. Not only were all issued shares sold (and quickly), but the average selling price was significantly higher than the original 0.7 offering. If this were my IPO I'd be quite happy. My only regret would be that I didn't have more than 8Ghash (10 Singles) of hardware to back more than 2000 shares.
But Inaba is building up, so additional shares will come.