Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Founder to Make rare public appearance in San Francisco, Shares Up

The reclusive and media-averse founder and Chief Executive of Facebook Inc(NASDAQ:FB) is scheduled to make a rare public appearance and speak at the TechCrunch conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Apart from regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the odd statement in a press release, investors and analysts get to see or hear very little of the youthful Zuckerberg who is given to wearing hoodies.

It will also be chance for the tech community to hear about his views about the company, which is now etched in public memory more for its messed-up IPO than for anything else.

Analysts feel that he has retreated into a shell, from which he should step out and connect with his users and investors.

He has a lot of explanations to make to investors who bought into his dream, little realising that holding onto those shares would quickly become a nightmare.

Shares in the company which debuted at $38 each in the IPO, have now fallen to les than half that value at $18 a share.

There has just too much of negative news and events that have battered confidence.

A lot of insider investors, who hold large chunks of stock purchased earlier on at very low prices, have been steadily selling their holdings. This requires some explanation, especially since among these sellers is his Harvard University roommate and cofounder Dustin Moskovitz.

There is still a lot of bad blood still lingering in the aftermath of the IPO where a lot of large institutions lost money. Nasdaq has been accused of bungling the trading in the shares of the company, while Morgan Stanley as the main underwriter to the issue, is also accused of withholding sensitive information from the rest of the investor community, regarding the company's earnings potential.