Anyone else seeing the comedy in the Facebook Pump and Dump?

[Malsua]

I've been so busy with my house that I've not followed the Facebook IPO other than the headlines and some light detail.

That it's crashing brings a smile to my face.

The financials on FB showed it to be worth over 99 times earnings. That's ridiculous. Only a frickin moron would buy and hold FB.

World largest Pump and Dump and it flopped! LOL. It never pumped...just dumped.

[Ryan Ruck]

I've gotten a good chuckle out of it. After all, what does Facebook own that would justify its valuation?

[American Patriot]

I've laughed about it a lot the last few days.

I knew they were pricing it too high and thought to myself "This is going to crash and burn".

Hasn't QUITE done that yet, but it's pretty close to the ground.

By noon on the opening day it had gone from 38 bucks to 45, and by close it was 38.18.

I laughed so hard! haha

It's already pretty low by today, guess it's at 31.00 now.

So, I figure in about 10 days more it will level off about where it should have been on the opening. About 22 dollars.

[American Patriot]

I've gotten a good chuckle out of it. After all, what does Facebook own that would justify its valuation?

Virtual "property" and private information for a lot of people.

Ever see anyone sell an account in an online gaming world like World of Warcraft?

They can make a lot of cash on those accounts.

[American Patriot]

Lawsuits are flying this morning!

LOL

[American Patriot]

• TECHNOLOGY
• May 23, 2012, 8:48 a.m. ET

Facebook Shares Rise




By DREW FITZGERALD

NEW YORK—Facebook Inc. FB -9.77% shares rose 1.7% in premarket trading as the stock seeks to reverse its two-day losing streak.



About an hour before the opening bell, Facebook shares traded at $31.54, up 54 cents from the close Tuesday. The social network, which initially was valued at $104.1 billion, is now worth about $86.4 billion.



Facebook lost 19% of its value over the last two days as investors sought to make sense of what led to the company's disappointing initial public offering. Bankers on the deal lowered their earnings estimate in the middle of the share sale, even as the company decided to increase the size of the offering.


The mess has now led to the filing of several lawsuits as well as regulatory agencies saying they plan to investigate the handling of the most heavily traded IPO ever.



Some analysts on Wall Street have called the stock's two-day slide overblown. Needham Research initiated coverage Wednesday on Facebook with a $40 price target—$2 above the company's IPO price—noting the massive amount of time users spend on the network.



Facebook "has already solved the two hardest execution risks," namely establishing a brand and becoming relevant online, Needham's Laura Martin said. "The biggest execution risk that remains is monetization."



The company's reputation also should help it to secure a strong work force, she said. "Employees in the Silicon Valley are mobile and move to the company that has the smartest people, the best culture, and a strong likelihood of an IPO in the near future," she said. Facebook "has had its pick of the litter for the past several years."

[American Patriot]

Facebook IPO plunge sparks tidal wave of lawsuits



Shares plummet, investors sue everyone, regulators pull out their probes
By Brid-Aine Parnell • Get more from this author
Posted in Business, 23rd May 2012 12:44 GMT



Investors in Facebook's IPO are not taking the stock's drubbing lying down and have launched lawsuits against the social network, its underwriters and NASDAQ, while regulators probe the way the debut was handled.


Investor Darryl Lazar has filed a class action suit against Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, the network's early backers and the banks that helped it onto the market, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, among others, alleging that they failed to be upfront about the prospects for the business.



The suit stems from claims that Morgan Stanley and other banks that were underwriting the initial stock sale decided that their revenue estimates for Facebook were a bit generous and cut them, but only told their large investor clients, not the general public.



Lazar's complaint quotes news articles published after the shares in Facebook had started falling this week, particularly one by Reuters, that claimed that underwriting banks Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs had all cut their earnings forecasts for the social network in the middle of the IPO roadshow.


Morgan Stanley told The Register in an emailed statement that it had followed the same procedure with Facebook's IPO as it does for all IPOs.
"These procedures are in compliance with all applicable regulations," it said.


But regulators are also casting a close eye over the Facebook proceedings.


Both the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission said it was an issue they had had thoughts about, but stopped short of saying there would be an investigation.


"It's a matter of regulatory concern to us and I'm sure to the SEC," said Richard Ketchum, FINRA's chief exec, according to Reuters. "And without saying whether it's us or the SEC, we will collectively be focusing on it."
SEC chair Mary Schapiro told reporters outside a Senate Banking Committee hearing that the commission would be asking questions.
"I think there is a lot of reason to have confidence in our markets and in the integrity of how they operate, but there are issues that we need to look at specifically with respect to Facebook," she said.


And on top of all that, Massachusetts Secretary of Commonwealth William Glavin has issued a subpoena to Morgan Stanley.


"The Securities Division has put out a subpoena to Morgan Stanley in connection with the analyst's discussion with certain institutional investors about the revenue prospects for Facebook," a spokesman for Galvin's office told Reuters.


A subpoena is a request for documents pertaining to the IPO, but it doesn't mean that an investigation will necessarily follow.


It has also been reported that NASDAQ OMX Group is facing a lawsuit for the technical glitches on the morning of Facebook's IPO, which led to buy and sell orders and their cancellations being held up.


Investor Phillip Goldberg has filed a class action citing NASDAQ's failure to "process Facebook trades promptly and efficiently, parties attempting to purchase Facebook shares were unable to determine if they had properly done so".


He said that at one stage on Friday, he placed an order to buy when stocks were at $41 or so, but by the time the trade was executed they had fallen to around $38 and the sale went through despite his attempts to cancel.


NASDAQ chief Robert Greifeld already admitted on Monday that the exchange mucked up and promised changes to its IPO systems to stop it happening again.


Whether the IPO was done shadily or not probably wouldn't matter quite so much to everyone if the Facebook shares hadn't been taking a beating in the market.


After a very brief high of $42 on opening, the stocks have plummeted, finishing yesterday at $31. The fall puts the shares 18 per cent below the IPO offer price of $38 and has wiped nearly $20bn off Facebook's market valuation.


Investors also seem to have a bit of selective memory when it comes to information from and about Facebook prior to its debut. The social network issued an updated prospectus to the SEC not long before its IPO that spoke of concerns about its customers moving to mobiles, where advertising was limited.


And in the week that it went public, General Motors, the US's third-largest advertiser, pulled all its adverts off the social network because it didn't seem to think they were working very well. ®

[American Patriot]

Zuckerberg moneymoon soured by investor lawsuits

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Published: 23 May, 2012, 16:57




Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Reuters/Yuriko Nakao)

TAGS: Corporate news, IPO

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s honeymoon with Priscilla Chan may be overshadowed by the newly-weds’ company confronting lawsuits from angry investors.
As shares in the number one social network continue to lose value, regulators are probing whether important information was withheld from some investors before the company’s IPO last week.
On Friday, Facebook's bankers launched a massive share-buying operation to stop shares from falling below their offer price of $38. Despite this, the company’s shares continue to slide, creating huge losses for investors who bought in when the stock started trading. Facebook stock ended the first day of trading at $38 per share, and its IPO reportedly made thousands of the company’s employees millionaires.
On Monday the company's shares plunged by more than 11% and Facebook’s market value had fallen to $85bln by the end of trading on Tuesday, cutting Zuckerberg's stake from $19.1bln to $15.6 bln.
On Tuesday Facebook reportedly settled a lawsuit that alleged the site’s “Sponsored Stories” section publicized users’ images without compensation or the ability to opt out, according to a court document filed on Tuesday. Facebook did not comment.
But this does not mark an end to the company’s legal problems, as US law firm Glancy Binkow & Goldberg has filed a class action lawsuit against Facebook, Zuckerberg and Morgan Stanley on behalf of investors who suffered losses in the IPO.

The complaint alleges that the information provided to potential investors was negligently prepared and failed to disclose material data about Facebook's business, operations and prospects. Specifically, the complaint alleges that Facebook’s potential financial implications were only revealed to professional investors and not to the general public. Morgan Stanley, which was the chief underwriter of the flotation, slashed its forecasts, along with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, according to a report from Reuters.
Adding to Facebook’s headache, the Nasdaq, which listed Facebook shares, was hit with a class action lawsuit last night on behalf of investors whose trades were not properly processed because of a software glitch on Friday.

[American Patriot]

[New Guy]

i find it hilarious that their are lawsuits...investing is speculating, these idiots wanted the quick buck and they got burned. serves them right.

but of course in our era of "hope and change" i'm sure they will win the lawsuit and somehow it'll come out of our taxes.

[American Patriot]

You know other technical IPOs have shot up in worth... Apple, had you bought 10 shares or so back when it was opened, I think it was worth about 20 bucks, would net you about 40k today. Weird how some work, and some don't...

But as Ryan pointed out, what is of "value" here? Nothing. No hardware work, no advances in computers, science, nothing of physical, tangible worth. Only "intellectual property" - usually belonging to other people!

[Ryan Ruck]

Virtual "property" and private information for a lot of people.

Ever see anyone sell an account in an online gaming world like World of Warcraft?

They can make a lot of cash on those accounts.

I was thinking of that but, they can't be worth that much.

[American Patriot]

How much is your email address, phone number, shopping habits, credit/debit card numbers, tracking cookies on a browser, where you shop, what you buy and drive and how many guns, ammo and beans you collect worth to someone?

[Ryan Ruck]

With Facebook? $0 since I don't have a Facebook page.

[American Patriot]

haha. Yeah, I didn't really mean FB specifically. But those things are worth a lot of money to various organizations who are willing to pay for it, and it's what makes places like FB worth something "tangible".

[Malsua]

I love that people are suing.

For what exactly? You didn't make millions by getting at the front of the line? I mean, that's what this is about isn't it? I couldn't have had 1 share of FB before it opened for trading. These fuckers had millions that they expected to go up in value and I'm supposed to be worried. LOL. Suck it shithead!