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Ear to the Ground

Mark Zuckerberg Just Lost $2 Billion

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Posted on May 21, 2012
deneyterrio (CC BY 2.0)

The financial firm Morgan Stanley buffered the losses Zuckerberg’s company suffered in the first two days of trading.

Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune dropped $2 billion Monday as shares of Facebook tumbled to $34.03, 11 percent below their initial public offering price of $38. The loss prompted analysts and buyers to wonder whether the company was overvalued at the $105 billion it gained on the day of its IPO.

To put things in perspective, $2 billion was the amount numerous shareholders lost collectively in a bad bet recently made by JPMorgan. —ARK

DealBook at The New York Times:

On Friday, traders at the company’s lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley, resorted to buying shares to prop up the price at $38, an important psychological barrier. To break the offering price would lead to what traders call a “busted I.P.O.,” an embarrassing moment for the underwriters.

… The sell-off is sure to leave analysts and shareholders wondering whether Facebook was worth the enormous $105 billion market capitalization it gained from its initial public offering. Critics have said the company does not generate nearly enough advertising revenue to justify being priced at 108 times earnings over the last 12 months.

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Egomet Bonmot's avatar

By Egomet Bonmot, May 22, 2012 at 7:48 pm Link to this comment

Good thing he married a doctor.

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By John Poole, May 22, 2012 at 2:11 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

A placard I have in my rear hatchback window of my Jetta wagon
REAL MEN AREN’T ON FACEBOOK

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By bmeisen, May 22, 2012 at 2:02 pm Link to this comment

Anyone who bought should have just sent Zuckerman a twenty in an envelope. Wouldn’t surprise me if the thing disappears in a couple of years - it’ll take a while for the competition to get up and running. They were moving in the gray area between public and private goods. It was easy to think that FB was a public place, like a schoolyard or a park, as long as there was no intrusive advertising. This IPO makes it clear: FB is private and the owner is doing it for money, ultimately your money. Wikipedia and Amazon were the models and FB chose Amazon. Social media as a true public good could be an alternative if public broadcasters were authorized by their governments to make a platform available to citizens. Who can be trusted with your pictures? A private company or a public media source?

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By 1whoknows, May 21, 2012 at 9:58 pm Link to this comment

I’ve never understood the popularity of these social networks where the release of so much personal information greatly increases the chance of being victimized by identity theft.

There’s no doubt that people feel the need to connect with each other, but I don’t see how the long-term business model will hold up over time, especially when they start getting bombarded by even more ads in the near future.

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By Schlee, May 21, 2012 at 9:25 pm Link to this comment

*******

Facebook is the big thing before last, the AOL of this decade.

Poised to sink into the obscurity it so richly deserves.


FREE AMERICA

REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY


*******

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