2012年5月18日 星期五

ABC News: U.S.: Facebook Shares Pop Then Fade in Debut

ABC News: U.S.
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Facebook Shares Pop Then Fade in Debut
May 18th 2012, 18:13

After some technical hiccups, trading in Facebook's blockbuster IPO officially opened to an eager public today at about $42.05 a share and drifted lower by mid-day.

Shares were trading around $41.33 at around 12:33 p.m. eastern time, topping the offer price of $38.

Earlier on Friday, shares dropped below $40, lower than what many analysts expected.

Jim Krapfel, IPO analyst with investment firm, Morningstar, said he was surprised to see Facebook only up a few percentage points given the amount of pent up retail demand for its shares.

"Clearly concerns regarding the company's valuation, increased insider selling, and GM news are weighing on the stock. Weakness in the stock market over the last several days is also likely playing a significant role," he said.

Morningstar has valued the company at $32 a share but Krapfel had expected the stock to trade into $50 and above.

He acknowledged that Facebook's IPO was "overhyped."

"Everyone and their child was interested in the IPO," he said.

Visit Yahoo Finance for real-time trading of Facebook shares.

General Motors said this week it was pulling about $10 million of advertising from Facebook.

But that didn't stop Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, and COO Sheryl Sandberg from celebrating IPO day. The two executives gathered with a throng of cheering employees at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., to ring the Nasdaq's opening bell at 9:30 a.m. eastern time ahead of the social media network's long-awaited IPO.

Trading of the company's shares, designated with the ticker symbol, "FB," was scheduled to begin around 10:45 a.m. eastern time but began almost an hour later because Facebook's underwriter, Morgan Stanley, was reportedly having trouble changing orders.

PHOTO: Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, and COO Sheryl Sandberg gather with a throng of cheering employees at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. to ring the stock market's opening bell, May 18, 2012.

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Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook,... View Full Size
PHOTO: Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, and COO Sheryl Sandberg gather with a throng of cheering employees at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. to ring the stock market's opening bell, May 18, 2012.
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Facebook's $16 billion raised on Thursday evening, when it priced its shares at IPO, raised more capital in one listing than all of the combined U.S. IPOs this year, which was $12.1 billion, according to Thompson Reuters.

Facebook will raise $18.4 billion including the full share overallotment, which is the second largest initial public offering in U.S. history behind Visa's $19.7 billion offering in March 2008. Visa's initial public offering was priced at $44 a share.

With a large monitor and stage set up outdoors in "Hacker Square," instead of visiting Nasdaq's New York exchange, hundreds of employees gathered in the early hours of the morning in California. Many of them had participated in Facebook's 31st "hackathon," a company tradition described as an overnight sleepover that encourages employees to work on anything but their normal work duties.

Nasdaq's CEO, Bob Greifeld, stood beaming next to Zuckerberg, 28, sans necktie, donning a t-shirt and clapping along with the other employees.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Top List of Youngest CEOs: In Photos

It was a long-awaited moment for the eight-year old company that started in the Harvard University dormitory, Kirkland House.

In Photos: A Timeline of Facebook

Not to abandon Wall Street completely, Facebook CFO David Ebersman reportedly was at the Nasdaq in New York City during the opening bell. Instead of scrolling the usual stock prices of the day, Nasdaq's digital billboard at its market center in Times Square this morning read, "Nasdaq Welcomes Facebook."

On Thursday night, Facebook priced its initial public offering at $38 a share, raising $16 billion and valuing the company at $104 billion. The company said it made $3.7 billion in revenue in 2011.

The company is offering 421.2 million shares of common A-class stock, which includes 180 million new shares sold by the company and 241.2 million shares sold by existing shareholders, such as early employees.

In Photos: Meet the New Facebook Billionaires

The biggest IPO for a U.S. technology firm has gotten the attention of everyone from high school students to Wall Street professionals, many of whom are likely among the 900 million monthly users of the social media site.

Out of four recent technology IPOs -- those of LinkedIn, Zynga, Pandora and Groupon -- only LinkedIn has recently traded above its IPO price. LinkedIn's IPO price last May was $45 a share. Shares of LinkedIn were trading down around 0.83 percent on Friday mid-day at $104.

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