IP Uh Oh

Zuck. (Photo: scrapetv.com)

Facebook’s Cold IPO Calculus: Protecting Insiders Over Shareholders, Obscuring Risks

Yesterday over drinks, we asked an angel investor if he thought Gilt Groupe would actually go public this quarter or next year, as planned. Fat chance given the post-Facebook IPO market, he replied. (Stronger language was used.)

Today, Bloomberg offers a must-read, in-depth investigation into just how cynical Facebook was in the lead-up to the IPO, including obscuring material information on risks demanded by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Those vulnerabilities, such as difficulties in monetizing mobile, decelerating revenue and dependence on Zynga, became painfully evident to shareholders who have watched what was supposed to be “the IPO of the Century,” drop in share price from $38 down to $19.69 as of this afternoon.  Read More

It's Zuck's World We're Just Living In It

Hang in there just like that kitten on the poster, Mr. Zuckerberg. (flickr.com/gpaumier)

Mark Zuckerberg No Longer On List of 40 Wealthiest People

If you felt The Force shudder and ripple sometime tonight it may have been due to the Earth-shattering report that Facebook’s C.E.O. Mark Zuckerberg has left the world’s 40 richest people list. We would pause while you gasp and sob but it’s scab-pulling time regarding the bad news for the youthful billionaire–and anyway, we think Zuck can handle the pain: Read More

FACEBOOK DAAAY

14 Photos

Chris Hughes, cofounder

IPO Day Facebook Statuses From Early Facebook Employees

Congratulations to all the newly minted billionaires out there! (For up-to-the-minute coverage, see our liveblog.) So how are early Facebook employees celebrating, since it’s apparently déclassé to run out and buy a shiny new Lambo? To check up on the Facebook Mafia, we went right to the source and investigated. We found radio silence from a few prominent names (Sean Parker and Dave Morin*, please call your offices). We also discovered that more than a few of these folks seem to have either instituted strict privacy settings, bailed on the network entirely or, most scandalous of all, still haven’t switched to Timeline. But we found plenty of status updates to amuse and enlighten.  Read More

On the Scene

7 Photos

Facebook IPO Day!

In Which We Investigate the Scene Outside of NASDAQ’s Times Square MarketSite

Betabeat has the distinct pleasure of working a few blocks from the NASDAQ MarketSite, so we decided to venture over and see what the scene looked like on the day of the biggest-ever tech IPO. We arrived just as Facebook released its shares and watched the prices flash up and down on the TVs. “FB NASDAQ Listed” read the big screen facing Times Square. Read More

$FB

The man of the day. (Photo: flickr.com/rubygoes)

The Facebook (FB) IPO Day 1 Liveblog, Go!

And that’s all she wrote! Enjoy your weekend, try not to spend it on Facebook. 

6:06 p.m.: Cue the speculation on the next Facebook to go public. Over on

3:55 p.m.: Zynga investors are likewise not having the best day.

Linkages

You know who. (Photo: flickr.com/prospere)

Booting Up: All Facebook Everything

Facebook’s 421,233,615 shares are opening at $38 each [Facebook]

Who’s getting paid today? [Fortune]

A picture of a Facebook share [Business Insider]

Facebook had a wacky hackathon last night! [VentureBeat]

How will Europe ever build the next Facebook? [New York Times]

Hong Kong trading platform offers $200 of Facebook stock to new users [TechCrunch]

Ostentatious wealth is frowned upon in Silicon Valley, which likes its millionaires in jeans and hoodies [New York Times]

There are more than 30 banks handling Facebook’s public trading debut, for fees of $100 million. What, exactly, do these banks do? The Guardian investigates. [The Guardian]

It's Zuck's World We're Just Living In It

Not this.

NASDAQ and NYSE Bicker Over Facebook IPO: You, Sir, Are No Brad Pitt

Mark Zuckerberg still hasn’t announced which stock exchange he wants to call home, but that hasn’t stopped NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange from sniping at each other in the press.

Their bitter rivalry is underscored by the fact that their business is “being eroded by other global exchanges and upstart electronic-trading venues,” reports the L.A. Times. Read More

Secondary Markets

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The Future of SecondMarket In a World Without Private Facebook Shares

In SecondMarket’s 2011 year-end report, Facebook beat out Twitter, Foursquare, Gilt Groupe, Hulu, Spotify, and more as the trading platform’s number one most-watched company. Facebook has 14,973 “watchers,” almost double the next-closest, Twitter at 7,854. More tellingly, according to public statements from CEO Barry Silbert, 30 percent of SecondMarket’s revenue came from trading private shares of Facebook stock, which will soon become a province of the public markets.

But to hear Mr. Silbert tell it, he’s coping with the loss just fine. After all, it’s not like they didn’t know this was coming. As Crain’s reports, on Wednesday, Mr. Silbert told the audience at an Xconomy forum on New York’s venture capital scene, “We’re completely prepared to fill the hole,” adding, “We’re hiring, and we have a lot of capital.” Read More