ipo

Nasdaq CEO: 'Arrogance' led to Facebook IPO flop

Nasdaq's chief executive says "arrogance" and "overconfidence" among the stock exchange's staffers contributed to Facebook's mishandled IPO last month.

Robert Greifeld said Sunday that the stock exchange simulated high trading volumes on the trading systems before the May 18 IPO but was unprepared for the number of canceled orders just before the offering. "Testing didn't account for the increasing volume at which cancellations can come in," he told a conference of corporate directors at Stanford University's Law School, according to a Wall Street Journal account of the event.

Nasdaq … Read more

Lawmakers push SEC for new IPO regulations after Facebook gaffe

A U.S. House of Representatives committee chairman has sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, asking what went wrong with Facebook's recent IPO and suggesting that it's time to overhaul the landmark Securities Act of 1933.

"As we consider means to improve capital formation, we must revisit the Securities Act of 1933," Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wrote on behalf of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in a letter obtained by The Wall Street Journal. "The investment banks were given almost 80 years to enjoy this flawed law, fraught with … Read more

Mark Cuban dumps his Facebook stock

The Dallas Mavericks' losses this year weren't the only ones that upset Internet mogul Mark Cuban.

The sports franchise and billionaire entrepreneur owner told CNBC that he sold all 150,000 shares of Facebook stock he owned after suffering through the stock's weak initial showing.

"I already sold it, I took my hit, my thesis was wrong. I thought we would get a quick bounce just about the excitement about the stock. I was wrong, and when you are wrong you don't wait, you just get out. So I took a beating and left," he … Read more

Facebook takes on mobile ads based on user locale

With mobile advertising becoming increasingly more important, Facebook appears to be amping it up. According to Bloomberg, the social network is developing a mobile ad product that uses real-time data based on users' locations.

"Phones can be location-specific so you can start to imagine what the product evolution might look like over time, particularly for retailers," Facebook's vice president of global marketing solutions Carolyn Everson told Bloomberg. "We've had offers being tested over the last couple of months."

When the company went public in May, people speculated that in order to keep share prices … Read more

Facebook's stock is bouncing back -- for now

Don't look now, but Facebook shares have been on the rise for the last three trading days. Last Wednesday, the social network's stock stood at $27.24. It closed today at $31.41, a 15 percent rise in less than a week.

So far, Facebook has recovered more than $10 billion of the $35 billion in market capitalization it blew off following its disastrous IPO. Facebook's painful low of $25.52 -- just 12 days ago! -- is now starting to fade a bit.

There are many possible reasons for Facebook's recent rise. The company has … Read more

How Facebook investors fooled themselves

When disasters happen, everyone wants an explanation.

This is partly so that it can't happen again and partly in order to find something or someone to blame.

I am relieved, therefore, that we finally have a culprit for the slight debacle that was the Facebook IPO.

No, it isn't Facebook's CFO, nor some rapacious banker, seated upon a velvet Bentley driver's seat. Instead, the cause of this tragedy was Availability Bias.

Should you not have heard of this phenomenon, or syndrome or complex it's the idea that if people find something important, they believe that … Read more

Facebook: Nasdaq's mistakes in IPO pushed stock down

In a court brief filed today, Facebook alleges that trading system glitches during its IPO last month and other actions on the part of Nasdaq contributed to a decline in the share price that prompted dozens of investor lawsuits.

The claims are made in a motion Facebook filed seeking to have the 40 or so lawsuits consolidated into one case in federal court in New York City, where Wall Street is located. The lawsuits allege that Facebook violated laws by not publicly disclosing that it was lowering its revenue projections prior to the IPO because of lower-than-expected growth in ads. … Read more

SEC spooked by Facebook's pre-IPO mobile numbers

The Securities and Exchange Commission's pre-IPO correspondence with Facebook makes it clear that the regulatory body seemed quite concerned with the impact mobile growth could have on its operation.

"Assuming that the trend towards mobile continues and your mobile monetization efforts are unsuccessful, ensure that your disclosure fully addresses the potential consequences to your revenue and financial results rather than just stating that they 'may be negatively affected,'" the SEC wrote to Facebook back in February after a review of the company's S1 Registration statement filed with the government body.

Facebook's mobile efforts have been … Read more

Facebook response to IPO lawsuits to focus on Nasdaq

Facebook is expected to make its first public response as early as tomorrow to the wave of investor lawsuits regarding the company's lackluster IPO.

The social-networking giant is planning to file a motion to consolidate all the shareholder lawsuits pending against it, providing inside perspective on the role that the Nasdaq stock exchange's performance had on the stock's trading activity, a personal familiar with the matter told The New York Times. The IPO's lead underwriters -- Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase -- are also expected to join the motion, the paper reported.

Facebook representatives … Read more