Showing posts with label SOCIAL MEDIA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SOCIAL MEDIA. Show all posts

Monday, May 21, 2012

DTN News - TECHNOLOGY NEWS ~ FACEBOOK: Mark Zuckerberg’s And Priscilla Chan Tied The Knot

Asian Defense News: DTN News - TECHNOLOGY NEWS ~ FACEBOOK: Mark Zuckerberg’s And Priscilla Chan Tied The Knot
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith 
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 21, 2012: Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has updated his status to "married."

While all the media talk was about Facebook’s initial public offering, Mark Zuckerberg and his nine-year-old girlfriend Priscilla Chan secretly tied the knot on Saturday. According to Us Weekly, the couple spent the past five months preparing for the wedding, but they preferred not to mention anything because they wanted an intimate ceremony. 

Zuckerberg and 27-year-old Priscilla Chan tied the knot at a small ceremony at his Palo Alto, Calif., home Saturday, capping a busy week for the couple.
This photo provided by Facebook shows Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan at their wedding ceremony in Palo Alto, Calif., Saturday, May 19, 2012. Zuckerberg updated his status to "married" on Saturday. The ceremony took place in Zuckerberg's backyard before fewer than 100 guests, who all thought they were there to celebrate Chan's graduation. (AP)
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan are seen in this screengrab of a wedding photo posted on Zuckerberg's Facebook page May 19, 2012. Zuckerberg wed longtime girlfriend Chan on Saturday, announcing the nuptials through a status update on the social networking site. (REUTERS)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his girlfriend Priscilla Chan walk near Fuxing Road in Shanghai in this March 27, 2012, file photo. Zuckerberg wed longtime girlfriend Chan announcing the nuptials through a status update on the social networking site May 19, 2012. (REUTERS)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his girlfriend Priscilla Chan walk near Fuxing Road in Shanghai in this March 27, 2012, file photo. Zuckerberg wed longtime girlfriend Chan announcing the nuptials through a status update on the social networking site May 19, 2012. (REUTERS)
Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, shown in this image from Reuters video, celebrates after ringing the NASDAQ Stock Market Opening Bell remotely from "Facebook" headquarters in Menlo Park, California, May18, 2012. Investors are bracing for Facebook's Wall Street debut on Friday after the pioneering online social network raised about $16 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings in U.S. history. To rapturous applause from employees, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg rang the bell to kick off trading on the Nasdaq market at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time. (REUTERS)
FILE- In this July 9, 2011, file photo, Mark Zuckerberg, president and CEO of Facebook, walks to morning sessions with his girlfriend Priscilla Chan during the 2011 Allen and Co. Sun Valley Conference, in Sun Valley, Idaho. On Saturday, May, 19, 2012, Zuckerberg and Chan tied the knot at a small ceremony at his Palo Alto, Calif., home, capping a busy week for the couple. (AP)
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg loves wearing a hoodie just about everywhere, including on a December trip to China with girlfriend Priscilla Chan (second from right). (GETTY)
Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg (2nd L) and his girlfriend Priscilla Chan (3rd R) holding flowers offered to them by local tourist officials during their private trip to Ha Long Bay in northeastern province of Quuang Ninh. They are on December 26, 2011 visiting the northern mountainous tourist site of Sapa, according to local media saying the couple received a two-week long Vietnamese tourist visa. (AFP)

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith ~ DTN News
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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Friday, May 18, 2012

DTN News - TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Facebook Stock ~ First-Day Of Trading Not For The Faint Of Heart

Asian Defense News: DTN News - TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Facebook Stock ~ First-Day Of Trading Not For The Faint Of Heart
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 18, 2012: Shorting the Facebook IPO on its first day of trading is not for the faint of heart, but some traders are trying.

As the hottest initial public offering in recent memory, Facebook has drawn 1990s-style tech-mania interest from mom and pop investors and big institutions alike.

That intense appeal means short-sellers are both attracted by the stock's high valuation and wary, at least for now.

"I have no interest in shorting a cultural phenomenon," hedge fund manager Jeffrey Matthews of Ram Partners in Greenwich, Connecticut, told Reuters in an email interview.

Asked if this was because such stocks trade without regard to normal market valuation, he wrote back, "Bingo."

Short sellers bet against shares by borrowing the security, then selling it. If the stock drops, they buy it back at the lower price, return it to the lender and pocket the difference as profit.

Shorts looking to bet against Facebook early face an uphill battle. Traders interviewed said the stock was going to be hard to borrow, at least for a few days, and only the best-sourced hedge fund managers will able to find lenders.

A prime broker at one of the top underwriters of the IPO said the firm would not be lending shares, at least until the initial settlement in three business days.

"I don't know how many shares will be available for shorting," said the broker, who requested anonymity. "We would only provide them once the deal has stabilized."

The bigger-than-usual percentage of retail-investor ownership of the shares may make shorting more difficult, as those investors don't tend to lend their shares for those who want to take a short bet.

"It will likely be difficult to get shares to borrow," said Adam Reed, professor of finance at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

"In our research, we found that around 70 percent of IPOs are borrowable on the first day, but many of those names were only borrowable by well-placed investors."

Those who are able to short need nerves of steel. The borrowing cost will be high, and short-sellers may find the trade hard to unwind by buying back the stock in the open market, and could face a lender calling in their shorts if the stock rallies sharply.

Still, some are trying to short Facebook on Day One.

"I'm doing the legwork now and calling all the brokers," said a hedge fund manager late on Thursday, after Facebook priced its IPO at $38 per share. "Goldman and Credit Suisse are our prime brokers, so I am in contact with them about this."

"This is about as bubbly as you can get," he said. "My mother asked me if she could get Facebook shares and she has never been interested in IPOs before. A cab driver asked me about the IPO too. That's when you want to short it."

The hedge fund manager asked not to be named as he expected to be involved in shorting the stock on Friday.

At the $38-a-share IPO price, Facebook would trade at over 100 times historical earnings, versus Apple Inc's 14 times and Google Inc's 19 times.

Facebook shares traded at $41.06 in early-afternoon dealings on Friday, up about 8 percent.

Some hedge funds, remembering the heady days of the tech bubble in the late 1990s, have been sensing blood in the water in the recent flurry of social media and networking IPOs, including Groupon, LinkedIn, and Zygna .

Many believe those stocks' valuations are too high, given expectations for their growth and revenue outlook.

Some traders who can't short Facebook shares early may be betting against these other social media stocks instead, according to Max Wolff, a senior analyst at GreenCrest Capital.

Zynga shares plunged more than 13 percent in early trading on Friday and were down 5.7 percent in the afternoon. Groupon and Pandora Media were off at least 4 percent.

Zynga's social games currently account for more than 10 percent of Facebook revenue and profit, so traders may be focusing most on Zynga shares and options as an alternative to Facebook.

"Zynga options have high skew right now. That's the pricing difference between out-of-the-money puts and out-of-the-money calls," said Ralph Edwards, director, derivatives strategy at ITG. "This typically means people are looking for Facebook to kind of spill over to Zynga. If Facebook catches a cold then Zynga gets pneumonia."

Still, even among the skeptical, there is a good deal of caution in facing down a stampede of hopeful long investors. As economist John Maynard Keynes famously noted, the market can stay irrational longer than investors can stay solvent.

"Facebook is the kind of stock that, if you don't like it, you simply avoid it," said Mohannad Aama, managing director at Beam Capital Management LLC in New York.
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

MORE ON THIS STORY



FACEBOOK STOCK: FIRST-DAY OF TRADING NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART

Vancouver Sun - ‎17 minutes ago‎
NEW YORK - Shorting the Facebook IPO on its first day of trading is not for the faint of heart, but some traders are trying. As the hottest initial public offering in recent memory, Facebook has drawn 1990s-style tech-mania interest from mom and pop ...
Initial public offering »Mark Zuckerberg »Web 2.0 »
Facebook shares soar before fizzling out. Buzz kill!
Facebook Stock Closes Up Less Than 1% From IPO
The $104 billion question: What does Facebook's value say about ours?
FACEBOOK IPO LIVE: The social network goes public
History of Facebook

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Vancouver Sun
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS
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Thursday, May 17, 2012

DTN News - TECHNOLOGY NEWS: How Facebook Took Over The Web

Asian Defense News: DTN News - TECHNOLOGY NEWS: How Facebook Took Over The Web
*New data from Nielsen reveals how Facebook grew to become the dominant social network it is today.
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Lance Whitney - Cnet News
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 17, 2012: Facebook is on its way to 1 billion users with an IPO around the corner. Not bad for a company with its roots in a Harvard dorm room.

But how did it achieve its grip on the global market? New findings from Nielsen offer a peek into some key milestones for the social network.

Facebook's user base currently numbers more than 900 million. But it's also one of the most visited Web sites in the world, according to Nielsen.
The site received around 152 million unique visits from people in the U.S. in March, which means that more than two out of three online Americans checked out Facebook that month. In such countries as Brazil, Italy, and New Zealand, the rate is even higher.
Facebook first grabbed 10 million unique U.S. visitors in November 2006 and 10 million unique U.K. visitors in April 2008. The site captured 10 million unique visitors in France, Germany, and Spain in 2009, Nielsen said.
In August of last year, Facebook surpassed Orkut as the top social network in Brazil and has continued to grab more users in the country since then. MySpace was also once a hot social network. But in January 2009, Facebook officially surpassed MySpace at the top social network and has held that title since.
Facebook is currently ranked top among all social networking and blog sites in 11 of 12 major countries around the world. The following table from Nielsen shows Facebook's reach in those 12 countries.
(Credit: Nielsen)
Of course, not everyone is a fan of the giant social network.
Half of the 1,000 Americans recently polled by the AP and CNBC believe Facebook is a fad. General Motors revealed this week that it was yanking its advertising on the network because it didn't think the ads were effective.
Concerns have also been raised about the company's move to go public. Half of the people in the AP-CNBC poll think the initial offering price is too high. Many also question whether CEO Mark Zuckerberg has the skills to manage and expand a large publicly-traded company.

Related stories

And the company has consistently gotten into deep water over privacy issues, angering users and advocacy groups.
Only 13 percent of the people polled by AP and CNBC trust Facebook "completely" or "a lot" to keep their personal information private. More than half (59 percent) said they have little or no faith in the company to protect their privacy.
Facebook has made tremendous strides since its birth in 2004. But the company will face more challenges ahead as it strives to grow both as a social network and a public corporation.


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*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Lance Whitney - Cnet News
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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DTN News - TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Facebook IPO Triggers Retail Investor Craze

Asian Defense News: DTN News - TECHNOLOGY NEWS: Facebook IPO Triggers Retail Investor Craze
*Facebook Value Up To $104 Billion - Company Hikes IPO Price Range
*Already expected to be the largest initial public offering for an Internet company, Facebook is making its IPO even bigger.
The world’s largest online social network on Tuesday increased the planned price range for its stock to $34 to $38 per share in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That’s up from its previous range of $28 to $35. At the upper limit of $38, the sale would raise about $12.8 billion.
The move, which values
Facebook as high as $104 billion, comes amid growing investor excitement about the offering. Analysts are comparing the frenzy surrounding
Facebook’s IPO to Google Inc.’s in 2004, though in sheer size the latter pales in comparison.
At the same time, half of Americans think the expected value for Facebook Inc. is too high, according to a new Associated Press-CNBC poll conducted before the company raised its expected stock price on Tuesday. Only one-third of those surveyed said they think Facebook’s expected value is appropriate.
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Alistair Bar and Olivia Oran - Reuters 
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 16, 2012: If "Facebook For Dummies" helped you find friends and post pictures on the world's No. 1 online social network, then consider "Facebook IPO Confidential" which purports to teach you "How To Get Rich With The IPO Of The Century."

The e-book is one of about eight self-help manuals that appear to have sprung up overnight to try to capitalize on the frenzy surrounding Silicon Valley's biggest initial public offering.
With other titles such as "The Facebook IPO Pitch: Are You In?" and "How To Invest In Facebook", these books are far from bestsellers. But, along with countless online forums and news articles about the IPO, they underscore the desire of ordinary people - many of whom have never invested in stocks before - to get in on the $15.2 billion share sale.
"If you can't invent Facebook, the next best bragging rights would be to say that you had invested in the social media phenom when it was a dorm room project. If not then, perhaps the IPO," Nancy Miller wrote in a guide titled "The Facebook IPO Primer."
Many wealth managers are advising their clients to avoid Facebook, pointing to a sky-high valuation of up to $104 billion set by the IPO, and potentially much higher once it starts trading. The company also shows signs of slowing growth, has yet to figure out how to make money on mobile, and new shareholders will have little influence as nearly 56 percent of voting shares will be in the hands of one person: Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.
But such warnings are falling on deaf ears as many people are drawn in by Facebook's brand name and the fact that one in seven people around the globe are on the social network. Facebook Inc on Tuesday increased the size of its IPO by nearly 25 percent and raised the target price range.
"I can't remember another IPO that got this much attention," said Max Wolff, a senior analyst at GreenCrest Capital. "Half the people talking about the Facebook IPO probably don't know what IPO stands for."
The strong demand means that most retail investors will have to wait until Facebook begins to trade on the Nasdaq on Friday to get hold of the shares - and risk getting trampled. If the stock skyrockets, the average person might end up getting orders filled at a price much higher than they wanted and then face the possibility of losses as funds steamroll in and then zip back out, taking the price off its highs.
"I don't know if buying on the day of the IPO is the best idea, but I like the novelty factor of it and being able to say that you bought on the first day," said Micah Stubbs, a first-time investor who works in the oil and gas industry and lives in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
Facebook's share price could surge 30 percent on debut day, said Reena Aggarwal, a professor of business administration and finance at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business in Washington. She suggested retail investors may be better off holding off for a few weeks until the share price settles.
"The market will try to figure out the right price for the stock and it's going to open really high," Aggarwal said. "There are lots of risks - the company is high growth but also high risk, and there is a lot of uncertainty, so retail investors have to be careful."
SLIM CHANCES
Facebook is going public after accumulating almost a billion users, nearly $4 billion in annual revenue and a brand name augmented by the 2010 Oscar-winning film "The Social Network", which charted the rise of Zuckerberg who started Facebook in his Harvard University dorm room.
Most ordinary people have only the slimmest of chances of getting hold of IPO shares as Facebook's 33 underwriters, led by Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, are expected to give priority to their most important clients, usually institutional investors.
Typically, only 5 to 30 percent of IPO shares are set aside for retail investors, underwriters say.
Discount broker E*Trade Financial, which was added to the list of IPO underwriters at the last minute, offers some help. Last week, its home page threw up a pop-up box explaining what investors need to do to get in on IPOs.
Would-be buyers have to answer about 25 questions about their financial status and investment habits. They are then prompted to place a conditional offer for at least 50 Facebook shares and a maximum price they are willing to pay per share.
Online prediction market Intrade, which lets investors bet on major events such as the U.S. presidential election, offers another alternative. It started a contract on Tuesday for bets on where shares of the social network will close on their first day of trading.
DAY TRADERS
Facebook reported $205 million in first-quarter profit, down 12 percent from the same period a year ago. While sales leapt 45 percent year-on-year to $1.6 billion, that lagged the 55 percent growth of the fourth quarter.
On Tuesday, General Motors Co said it will stop advertising on Facebook, amid concerns that the ads have had little impact on consumer spending. The auto maker continues to use Facebook pages for marketing its vehicles, but the news underscored the risks Facebook faces as it tries to boost revenue from its huge user base.
RegentAtlantic Capital is among the wealth managers recommending clients stay away, without much success.
"Most clients or their children have some interaction with Facebook, so I believe the demand will be high," RegentAtlantic wealth advisor Chris Cordaro said, warning that there could be "a lot of pain" ahead for investors who buy at inflated prices on Friday.
Because of such concerns, some retail investors plan to get in and get out of the stock quickly. That may be fine if they get in at the IPO price but if they end up buying once the shares have started trading up, they may not be so lucky.
"Retail participation is associated with more speculation and noise, and because of that there is more volatility," said David Sraer, a professor of economics at Princeton University. "They tend to herd together and be on the same side of the market, which drives imbalance."
Retired chemical engineer Alvan Sweet ordered through Schwab 10,000 Facebook shares worth $380,000 at the high end of the indicative IPO price range. If he is lucky enough to get an allocation, he plans to dump the shares on day one or two.
Sweet, whose son is a senior managing partner of the IPO Boutique advisory firm, has invested in IPOs before but says this is the first time friends in his Florida condo community have pestered him about getting shares. "They were hoping that because my son is in the business I would have access," he said.
One of his friends, Lucky Bloch, admits to losing money on an IPO before. But he is confident this investment will pay off.
"Initially Over-Priced is what IPO should stand for," he complained. "If you can get in before the first day, then sell a couple of days later, there's money to be made," he told Reuters. "Can you help me get shares?"
(Additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic and Sarah McBride, editing by Edwin Chan, Tiffany Wu and Richard Chang)

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Alistair Bar and Olivia Oran - Reuters 
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
©COPYRIGHT (C) DTN NEWS DEFENSE-TECHNOLOGY NEWS 
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