Facebook IPO

[Queens Guy]

On the one hand someone I know has said she never clicks on the ads that appear on her Facebook pages; on the other hand this morning there was an item on BBC Radio4 news about a firm -I can't recall its name- which launched its new fragrance online through its Facebook pages, so maybe that is one way commerce can benefit, although these firms must also have their own webpages as well.

Today's Guardian has a report which claims:

Financial regulators are to investigate whether the banks in charge of Facebook's initial stock offering broke the rules by selectively releasing negative news about the company before shares went on sale.
The financial industry regulatory authority (Finra) is looking into allegations that Morgan Stanley and other banks released reduced revenue forecasts for Facebook to big investors – but not the general public – before Friday's IPO. Such activity could constitute a violation of securities law.

Full article here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...tegated-secret

Companies can be successful through having a facebook presence, and GM will continue to have a facebook page, which is FREE.

But, the value of paid advertising is now the question.

facebook has to figure out how to generate income to keep the stock price up. Or, since psychology influences the stock market so much, they have to at least convince stockowners that they have that figured out even if they really don't. At an unemotional analysis of their P/E ratio, their price should be much lower. Closer to 3 or 4 their IPO price of 38.

[Stavros]

Could Facebook diverisfy into live events, or marketable products, like fridge magnets? Could an online phenomenon go 'mainstream' in the way, for example, that the BBC has live events across all sorts of music? I don't know if that would be an additional revenue stream. I am not a user so I ought not to comment, but I have noticed that a lot of jobs, particularly in marketing and communications expect their employees to bring experience of online social networking to the job. There was a time when online social networking meant gaydar, or ladyboy kisses, or something like that, so I guess that facebook has taken this to a whole other level -but wasn't there supposed to be a MySpace generation some years ago?

[hippifried]

Nobody buys a car, house, or any other big ticket item because a banner ad popped up on their computer screen. It doesn't matter if it's Facebook, You Tube, Google, or jizzfromthatbigdickdrippingdownyourchin.com. It's the "likes" that pay the bills, in a lot of different ways. I would imagine that big outfits like GM, Walmart, etc... are paid members because there's so many more options & fewer restrictions.

The idea that Facebook's money came from stock manipulation is ludicrous. Before last Friday, the only stock they had issued was the options offered to their employees. Initial Public Offering! It was Morgan Stanley that tried to manipulate the stock price before the sale. Everybody's getting sued over it, but I have a feeling that it's just the sore losers who bought high & sold low, & now want somebody else to pay for it so their other clients won't realize what kind of incompetents they really are. Now the big whine is "where's Zuckerberg?". Who cares? He doesn't owe anybody, including a minority of stockholders, coddling attention 24/7. He still personally owns the majority of the stock.

All I can say is: Welcome to the free market all you sniveling pecks.

[flabbybody]

ask a kid in your family (under 20 years old) if he or she clicks on an ad when they're on fb. They'll look at you and say "Dad, are you retarded? who looks at the ads?"
Fact is business and profits were the farthest thing from Zuckerberg's mindset when he created his platform. Monetizing the billion or so users is the question none of the smart guys on Wall Street have addressed with any honest specifics. GM called them out and they were left looking like fools

[ed_jaxon]

Two things would have scared me off of even thinking of buying Facebook.

1. They create no product. They connect people in a great way but at the end of the day what do they produce?

2. Based on point one, where will they be in 5 years? The internet shift quick from one thing to the next and unless they can keep being the company that creates the next big thing they are in trouble. The public is very fickle and especially so on the web.

[Odelay]

When the fuck is Hung Angels going IPO? It's a social media site, connecting like minded people - although there aren't really any friends around here.

[ed_jaxon]

C'mon O we're friends.

[onmyknees]

Sometimes the guy on the street corner has more common sense than big Wall Street Bankers...and certainly more honesty. If you gave the street corner preacher a prospectus of Facebook prior to the IPO he'd ask where's the company infrastructure...the tangible assets, the real estate holdings, the customer base ( not to be confused with the user base) where's the real worth of this company?
As someone said previously, and accurately....we've seen this act before with the dot.com's, but Wall Street will never stop finding ways to hump marginal and in some cases worthless ( bundled mortgage securities) investments. Look at that fucking idiot Jim Crammer. In 24 hours time he went from telling us it was a no brainer to telling viewers to dump it.
GM is in the businesses of selling cars....if they were getting a bang for their advertising buck, they would have never pulled this type of advertising, and probably had lots of internal discussions about pulling the advertising prior to the IPO...or after it. They decided correctly. I'm not a huge GM fan, but they did the right thing here. Anyone who didn't see that as a giant red flag deserves to lose . IPO's rarely live up to the hype. I've been in on 2 of them....never again.

[robertlouis]

Sometimes the guy on the street corner has more common sense than big Wall Street Bankers...and certainly more honesty. If you gave the street corner preacher a prospectus of Facebook prior to the IPO he'd ask where's the company infrastructure...the tangible assets, the real estate holdings, the customer base ( not to be confused with the user base) where's the real worth of this company?
As someone said previously, and accurately....we've seen this act before with the dot.com's, but Wall Street will never stop finding ways to hump marginal and in some cases worthless ( bundled mortgage securities) investments. Look at that fucking idiot Jim Crammer. In 24 hours time he went from telling us it was a no brainer to telling viewers to dump it.
GM is in the businesses of selling cars....if they were getting a bang for their advertising buck, they would have never pulled this type of advertising, and probably had lots of internal discussions about pulling the advertising prior to the IPO...or after it. They decided correctly. I'm not a huge GM fan, but they did the right thing here. Anyone who didn't see that as a giant red flag deserves to lose . IPO's rarely live up to the hype. I've been in on 2 of them....never again.

Once again, credit where it's due. Accurate in every particular omk.

I've been involved in two UK-based IPOs, both in telecomms, both successful at the time and both still trading healthily and independently. In both cases there was physical infrastructure and therefore tangible assets - putting digital networks into metropolitan areas in the UK and continental Europe.

Ironically, the merchant banks which advised us have both gone bankrupt

[SammiValentine]

It was Morgan Stanley that tried to manipulate the stock price before the sale..

Lol @ morgan stanley and the rest of "investmant banking", hey the housing bubbles has popped, so lets take even bigger risks with non existant money.

Least we not forget the investmant banking action of 2008 :-



Firm Date Founded Fate
Goldman Sachs , founded 1869 - Converted to bank holding company September 21, 2008
Morgan Stanley, founded 1935 -Converted to bank holding company September 21, 2008
Merrill Lynch , founded 1914 - Acquired by Bank of America September 15, 2008
Lehman Brothers, founded - 1850 Filed for bankruptcy September 15, 2008
Bear Stearns ,founded - 1923 Acquired by JPMorgan March 16, 2008