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.
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