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 
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DTN News - NATO NEWS: NATO Invites Pakistan To Chicago Summit

Asian Defense News: DTN News - NATO NEWS: NATO Invites Pakistan To Chicago Summit
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Reuters
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 16, 2012: NATO said on Tuesday it had invited Pakistan to a summit in Chicago next week, lifting a veiled threat that it might exclude the country from the talks on the future of Afghanistan.

"Allies decided to invite President (Asif Ali) Zardari of Pakistan to Chicago to the meeting on Afghanistan," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in a statement.

"This meeting will underline the strong commitment of the international community to the people of Afghanistan and to its future. Pakistan has an important role to play in that future."

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen suggested on Friday that Pakistan could be excluded from the May 20-21 summit if it failed to reopen the supply routes to Afghanistan that it closed after 24 of its soldiers were killed by a NATO cross-border air attack last November.

Rasmussen noted that other countries providing supply routes to NATO had been invited to the summit, which will map out a future for Afghanistan after most foreign combat troops are withdrawn at the end of 2014.

President Zardari's spokesman said he was considering whether to attend the Chicago summit and that the invitation was "unconditional and not linked to the opening of ground lines of communication for NATO or to any other issue."

Pakistan has demanded a formal apology from the United States for the attack before it reopens the supply routes, and has also called for an end to U.S. drone strikes on its tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Pakistan boycotted an international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn in December in protest against the NATO air strikes.

(Reporting By Sebastian Moffett; Additional reporting by Sheree Sardar in Islamabad; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)


*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Reuters
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DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Defense Spending Bill Includes Provision To Keep Air Guard Jets

Asian Defense News: DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Defense Spending Bill Includes Provision To Keep Air Guard Jets
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources by William Petroski
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 14, 2012: A defense spending bill proposed Monday in the U.S. House would block the Air Force from eliminating F-16 aircraft at the 132nd Fighter Wing in Des Moines until a cost-benefit analysis can be completed.

U.S. Rep. Tom Latham said the legislation would freeze the proposed retirement of Air Force aircraft, including the Iowa Air National Guard’s F-16s. The bill would require the Air Force to finish the cost-benefit study by October, with a review by the nonpartisan General Accounting Office within 120 days of its completion.

The bill is sponsored by the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee, on which Latham serves. The Iowa Republican said he believes a review will ultimately show the 132nd Fighter Wing operates cost-effectively and should continue flying F-16 combat aircraft over the long term. He called Monday’s action a major step forward.

“This is a great victory, and we are going to fight to save the 132nd Fighter Wing,” Latham said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C.

The Air Force has proposed budget cuts that include eliminating all 21 of the Iowa unit’s F-16 aircraft, replacing them with a smaller unit based in Des Moines that would remotely control unmanned aircraft that would be flown elsewhere, such as Afghanistan.

The proposal would eliminate 378 people now serving with the 132nd Fighter Wing, including 81 full-time employees. The unit currently has about 1,000 airmen.

The provision affecting the Des Moines unit is within a subcommittee draft for the fiscal year 2013 defense appropriations bill, which will be considered today.

The measure includes $589 million to “pause” retirements of Guard and Reserve aircraft to allow time for more analysis of the plans.

Latham said he expects to vote in favor of the bill when it reaches the full committee, possibly as soon as next week.

He believes the measure could be passed by the full House of Representatives within the next few weeks. The proposal would then be considered by the Senate.

“I have not talked with the Senate side, but we will be making a strong case with them,” Latham said. “The House position will be very strong.”

In defending the 132nd Fighter Wing, Iowa National Guard officials have noted it has been recognized as one of the top units in the Air National Guard. In addition, Air Guard units operate at about 30 percent of the taxpayer expense when compared to active-duty Air Force units, officials said.

About 270 airmen from the Des Moines-based wing recently returned from a deployment to Afghanistan.

“I think there is no question that we can show that it costs much less to maintain readiness with the Guard wing than on the active-duty side,” Latham said.

“We have tremendously experienced pilots and maintenance people that would be lost with the closing. I think a true cost-benefit analysis will justify us maintaining the 132nd Fighter Wing in Des Moines.”

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources by  William Petroski
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DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Lockheed Martin's DAGR Successfully Engages Moving Target in Apache Demonstration

Asian Defense News: DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Lockheed Martin's DAGR Successfully Engages Moving Target in Apache Demonstration
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Lockheed Martin
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 14, 2012: Lockheed Martin’s Direct Attack Guided Rocket (DAGR) successfully tracked and engaged a moving target in a recent demonstration at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz.

“DAGR hit a moving target from 3.5 kilometers,” said Hady Mourad, DAGR program director in Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control business. “Defeating high-value targets on the move is a critical capability, and demonstrating this ability is a significant milestone for the precision-strike DAGR.”

Test pilots launched an inert DAGR round in high winds from an AH-64D Apache, designating the target using the helicopter’s lock-on-before-launch mode. The target was a truck moving at 25 miles per hour. 

The demonstration, which consisted of four flight tests, also showed other DAGR capabilities including use of lock-on-after-launch mode, a long-range 5 kilometer flight and launch from a 5-degree offset. The DAGR round hit within one meter of the laser spot in all four tests.

Lockheed Martin has conducted more than 30 DAGR flight tests from ranges of 1 kilometer to 5.1 kilometers.  DAGR has been launched from multiple HELLFIRE-equipped rotary-wing platforms, including the AH-64D Apache, AH-6 Little Bird and OH-58 Kiowa Warrior.  

DAGR incorporates proven HELLFIRE II technology into a 2.75-inch/70 millimeter module that integrates seamlessly with legacy Hydra-70 rockets. The result is a laser-guided missile that puts a 10-pound warhead within one meter of the laser spot, devastating high-value, non-armored or lightly-armored targets while minimizing collateral damage.

DAGR enables pilots to lock on to targets before or after missile launch, and provides a large engagement envelope that allows them to pursue offset targets with confidence.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs about 123,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.  The Corporation’s net sales for 2011 were $46.5 billion.

Media Contact

Melissa Hilliard
(407) 356-5351
Melissa.hilliard@lmco.com

For additional information
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/mfc

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Lockheed Martin
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DTN News - BREAKING NEWS: Russia’s Sukhoi SuperJet-100 Goes Off Radars In Jakarta, Hijacking Not Ruled Out

Asian Defense News: DTN News - BREAKING NEWS: Russia’s Sukhoi SuperJet-100 Goes Off Radars In Jakarta, Hijacking Not Ruled Out
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources RT
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 11, 2012: A Russian jet carrying 50 passengers has disappeared from the radars during a demonstration flight for potential buyers in the Indonesian capital. Hijacking and a high-altitude crash into a mountain have not been ruled out.


Due to low visibility and fog the helicopters had to stop the search and return to base. The rescue operation is now restricted to a ground search. The search will continue throughout the night. 

“Now we are mobilizing ground teams in coordination with the local police and military units to find the aircraft’s whereabouts,” the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency chief, Vice Marshal Daryatmo told the Jakarta Post.

Rescuers have updated the plane's last-known coordinates and narrowed the search area. In the morning, five helicopters are expected to join the rescue operation. According to Russian diplomats, connection with the plane was lost as it passed over the western end of Java. The search mission is concentrating around Mount Salak, a 2,200-meter-high volcano about 50 km from the airport. 

Indonesia's Transport Ministry is still considering the plane as “missing,” as a crash has not been confirmed.

The latest reports suggest the mobile phones of several passengers might still be working. Blogger and traveler Sergey Dolya, who was on a previous flight on the same aircraft, tweeted that he has been trying to call his Russian friends for several hours. 

“Sometimes the calls go through, sometimes they get rejected. But no one picks up. Locals do not know how to locate [the phone’s position],” a recent tweet by Dolya says. Dolya has also tweeted that he sent a short message to each of the phones and is now waiting to receive delivery notifications.

Earlier, the director of Angkasa Aviation magazine said he was calling his two employees onboard the missing plane and nobody was answering, though a “call waiting tone" could be heard.

The plane went missing 20 minutes into its demonstration flight. The aircraft did not return to the airport at the scheduled time following takeoff.  By that time, the fuel should have been totally spent. 

Shortly before going off the radar, the crew of the aircraft had asked for permission to descend. It got permission to descend from an altitude of 10,000 feet to 6,000, after which radio contact was lost.

The Sukhoi SuperJet-100 is a modern regional jet with a passenger capacity of up to 100 people. It was designed by the Russian aerospace company Sukhoi in co-operation with Alenia Aeronautica. It is the first civil aircraft developed in post-soviet Russia. The aircraft conducted its maiden flight on May 19, 2008. In January 2011 the plane was certified by the Interstate Aviation Committee.  It was subsequently certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency in February 2012. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 flies at a Maximum Operating Speed of Mach 0.81and can reach an altitude of 40,000 feet. The operating range for the basic version is 3,048 km and 4,578 km for the long range version. Since its first commercial flight on April 2011, SuperJet has performed over 3300 flights. Currently there are eight jets operated by Armavia and Aeroflot.

There were 50 people onboard, including 8 Russians, two Italians, a French, an American, and 38 Indonesians – mostly representatives from major airline companies.

The aircraft was operated by a Russian crew: senior test-pilot Aleksandr Yablontsev and co-pilot Aleksandr Kochetkov.

RIA Novosti also released the names of six other Russian nationals. Aero navigator Oleg Shvetsov, flight engineer Aleksey Kirkin, leading test flight engineer Dennis Rakhmanov, test flight deputy head Nikolay Martyshenko, “Sukhoi” company Sales Director Evgeny Grebenshchikov, and contract manager Kristina Kurzhukova were all reportedly on board.

Indonesian authorities have called in a crisis group comprising local authorities and Russian embassy employees. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Industry and the airplane manufacturer to investigate the incident.

Sukhoi's Asian expo tour

The Russian aircraft arrived in Indonesia on May 9 – the fourth stop on its Asian demonstrative tour, which includes six countries in total. The plane had previously visited Myanmar, Pakistan and Kazakhstan. After Jakarta it was supposed to go to two more Asian countries – Laos and Vietnam.

The aircraft has already made one half-hour long demonstration flight in Jakarta. The first time it took to the skies, flight attendants from the Sky Aviation airliner, representatives from “VEB-Leasing” company, and others from a Russian insurance agency were on board.  

During its second flight, the aircraft took the potential buyers – representatives from Indonesia’s Batavia, Pelita, Air Aviastar, and Sriwijaya Air. 

Olga Kulikova, press-secretary for Russia’s “United Aircraft Corporation”, told RT the first flight went without a hitch and there were no signs of trouble the second time around.   

“Both flights were carried out from the same airport in Jakarta. Before the second flight, the plane underwent required maintenance and was technically in good order.”

Hardware failure, human error or hijacking?

Shortly before going off the radar, the crew of the aircraft had asked for permission to descend. They received permission to lower from an altitude of 10,000 feet to 6,000, after which radio contact was lost. There is a 6,200 foot-high mountain in the area where the plane went missing. Rescuers fear the plane may have crashed into it.

The plane's alleged trajectory is shown on a photo tweeted by blogger Sergey Dolya from the emergency operation center. The plane flew around the mountain, then sharply changed course as it began descending near a point marked with black arrows. 

Photo Sergey Dolya / @dolyasergey

That part of Jakarta has very rough terrain, former test pilot Magomed Tolboev, who used to fly there, told RT. “There is a mountain 6,158 feet high, it's very difficult,” he said. “The pilot must have seen the mountain because the plane is very modern. It is equipped with all the latest aviation equipment.”

Pilot Martin Medic agrees that properly-working ground proximity warning systems would have warned the plane’s crew in time enough to “avoid any kind of collision with terrain.”

However, Indonesian aviation authorities have not ruled out the possibility that the aircraft was hijacked. They say that in the case of a crash, an emergency beacon should have immediately gone off, which did not happen.

But Chris Yates, an aviation expert, rejects the hijacking scenario because in that case, some kind of “radar blip on the screen” would indicate where the aircraft might be.

Meanwhile, David Learmount, formerly of the aviation news website Flightglobal, believes that the fact that this particular flight was a demonstration for prospective customers could be a significant part of the equation. Quite a large number of flight accidents take place purely because the aircraft are being shown off right up to the edges of their potential, he told RT.

“It was a display flight, it was a demonstration flight,” Learmount said. “Sometimes the pilots or the crews deliberately take the aircraft right to their limits. And they do that sometimes when the aircraft is quite close to the ground. That is what a demonstration flight is often like. Sometimes they push the limits just too far. And that might have happened.”

Meanwhile, witnesses living near Salak Mountain say they heard and saw the missing aircraft flying over the Gunung Halimun Salak National Park, the park’s management told the Jakarta Post. So far the park authorities have failed to locate the plane.

Superjet-100 (RIA Novosti / Iliya Pitalev)

Incident history 

Since the SuperJet-100 was accepted into service, there have been several minor incidents involving the aircraft. None of the incidents resulted in injury or death. 

• On May 6, 2012, an SSJ-100 shortly veered off of a runway upon landing at the Airport in Kazan.
• On March 16, 2012, a jet had to make a u-turn and return to Moscow during a flight to Astrakhan after the crew discovered the landing gear had not been fully retracted. 
• On December 25, 2011, the flight of an SSJ-95 modification of a SuperJet from Minsk was cancelled due to a landing gear failure. The aircraft returned to Moscow without passengers.

Sukhoi SuperJet being inspected before its demo flight (Image from fotografersha.livejournal.com)

Emergency operation center (Photo by Sergey Dolya / @dolyasergey)

Photo by Sergey Dolya / @dolyasergey

Photo by Sergey Dolya / @dolyasergey

Photo by Sergey Dolya / @dolyasergey

Photo by Sergey Dolya / @dolyasergey

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources RT
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DTN News - NATO SUMMIT IN CHICAGO: Summit Will Deal With Range Of Issues, NATO General Says

Asian Defense News: DTN News - NATO SUMMIT IN CHICAGO: Summit Will Deal With Range Of Issues, NATO General Says
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Jim Garamone - American Forces Press Service
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 9, 2012: Afghanistan will dominate the NATO summit in Chicago later this month, but alliance leaders will deal with other issues as well, a senior NATO commander said here yesterday.

Gen. Stephane Abrial of the French air force told the Defense Writers Group the nations’ leaders also will deal with partnership capability, “smart defense” and other matters. Abrial is commander of NATO’s transformation command.

“On partnership, there will be a reaffirmation that NATO does not operate in isolation,” the general said. The alliance is keen to work more closely with all kinds of partners from other nations to international institutions to no-governmental organizations, he added.


The NATO-led actions in Libya are an example of the alliance working with non-NATO partners, such as the United Arab Emirates and the Arab League. NATO also works with the European Union to ensure that the two institutions work together smoothly, when needed.

How to work together with these disparate groups is part and parcel of the Allied Command Transformation mission, Abrial said.

On capabilities, the leaders will discuss the progress on decisions made at NATO’s 2010 summit in Lisbon, Portugal, including the smart defense initiative. Smart defense is about how the alliance will continue to develop and maintain the capabilities needed to fulfill its missions despite the new era of austerity.

Another initiative, “connected forces,” ensures that all forces can work well together. “The key word there is interoperability, and the three strands of that are training, exercises and technology,” Abrial said. “When I say capabilities, I don’t mean just a piece of equipment, but all aspects associated with it.”

This includes doctrine, leadership, facilities and much more, he explained, and these will be discussed in Chicago.

With a few exceptions, budgets across NATO are either steady or going down, the general said. “We expect this situation to be with us for quite a while … and therefore, it is very important we make the best possible use of every euro, dollar or pound that we get.”

The United States is reducing its defense budget, but there is no danger as yet that the U.S. military will not be able to operate across the full spectrum of operations, Abrial said. “This is not possible in Europe,” he added. “That is why when we look at smart defense, we look at ways to reduce the consequences of this austerity.”

Part of this is aligning national priorities with NATO needs. In other words, a nation may decide to specialize in detecting biohazards, for example. Since “Nation A” has this capability, “Nation B” does not have to develop it to the same extent. Both nations, therefore, save.

“Specialization does not mean we are going to say to anybody, ‘We must oblige you to do this and stop doing that,’” Abrial said. “We don’t have the mandate, authority or will to do that.


*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Jim Garamone - American Forces Press Service
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