Facebook Inc(NASDAQ:FB) founder Mark Zuckerberg was
brought face to face with a painful reality on Thursday. The social network
that he has built up and which runs on people using the platform to share their
photos and experiences has failed to inspire confidence in those people who
matter the most - the investors.
Early stage investors who were freed from the lock-in
of their shares on Thursday, took the first opportunity they could to sell
their holdings, despite the fact that the stock has dropped nearly half its
value from its debut on May.
Get Complete
technical Analysis on FB Here
Zuckerberg has so far been fairly stoical about the
fall in his share prices, exhorting employees not to pay attention to the
carnage on the Street but to what the company is doing to boost revenues.
At a meeting last month to infuse much-needed
enthusiasm into employees' sagging morale, he had conceded that a sell-off of
shares could hurt the company and it was `painful' to watch what was happening.
On Thursday, about 271 million shares came into the
market, following the planned expiry of a lock-in and those who held those
shares lost no time in offloading some part of it.
Facebook shares hit a new low on Thursday sinking to
$19.87 on selling pressure.
These early investors, whose shares became eligible
for sale, included such big names as Accel Partners, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft,
Greylock Partners and Zynga CEO among others.
The release of locked-in shares has been staggered
over the next three to four months in order to avoid flooding the market with
too many shares of the company. The biggest expiration is to occur on November
14 when Zuckerberg himself will become eligible to sell his shares.
Some mutual funds that had invested just prior to its
IPO are showing losses according to regulatory filing made by funds such as T
Rowe Price. Those who had bought as early as in 2010 could still hope to break
even on their investments. These include investors such as Goldman Sachs and
Russia's DST who had invested at about $20.85 a share.
According to data available from the exchanges, more
than 156 million shares changed hands on Thursday, which was more than four
times the average daily traded volume for the stock.
Social media bubble starting to pop.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel sorry for the Suckerbergs that invested in FB.
ReplyDeleteHahaha. Unless you click on those ads how are you going to get revenue. On the positive side you have a capital loss you can write off.
Run and sell your stock. Even people working at FB are cashing in.
Lets see if Z puts his money where his mouth is. Lets see what he does with his millions shares when the motherload of all dumps aka 1.2 billion shares comes on Nov 14. This guy has already made good coin by dumping some of his shares at the IPO at 38.00 , but he doesn't want other Insiders to sell..lol..insiders are not Fools , they are just as smart as him and want to dump their shares on the unsuspecting retail buyers aka bagholders..lol.
ReplyDeleteNo future for FB as long as they don't start charging a monthly membership fee. If only 20% of current members pay $ 9.99 a month, that would mean 180 million users paying a combined $ 1.8 billion per month. It's not rocket science Zuckerberg. Add another few hundred million in ad income and you have a company that has a steady income stream. Easy to make forecasts, investers like certainty and predictability.
ReplyDeleteSay "bye-bye" to all those users that don't want to pay.
Or sell premium memberships that unlock all features of FB on top of a free, limited basic program.
I advertised on FB for 4 months, did nothing for our business as people click and go. They are not on FB to search for a service or a product. They are there to just "hang-out".
As usual, the idiots who are fearful when everyone else is fearful got robbed, and the people willing to stick in long term will make a windfall. I'm waiting for a bottom and I'll probably buy in.
ReplyDeletefacebook is for suckers that can not have personal relationships with real people.
ReplyDelete