Will Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Repeat The Latest Lock In Turmoil in October?

Facebook Inc(NASDAQ:FB), which has had some temporary reprieve in the last week or so, and saw a mild positive up move, is set to face more selling pressures as more shares come out of lock up in October.

In mid-August about 271 million shares were released from mandatory lock-in and this led to large scale selling by internal investors who had been allotted shares long before the company's IPO in May.

Among the more prominent investors who had sold Facebook shares were Peter Thiel, a director on its board, and Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of the social networking site along with Mark Zuckerberg.

On October 29 another set of 234 million shares will be released from their lock-in, potentially freeing them up for sale in the market.

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On November 14, lock-in on more than 750 million shares will expire, while another 156 million shares will come up for sale a month later on December 14.

In the wake of the initial expiry of locked-in shares in August, Facebook shares had slumped to an all-time low of $17.73 in the first week of September.

Then Mark Zuckerberg made his first public appearance since the company's market debut and talked up the stock with positive comments and saying that the company was working on ways to get revenues and monetise its vast mobile subscriber base.

The company also announced a number of measures to prevent liquidity in the stock, with the chief executive himself pledging not to sell his shares for at least a year.

It remains to be seen whether the market reposes confidence in Zuckerberg and the future prospects of Facebook.