Will someone check my Latin? Ignorati may not be a real Latin word, but since you know what it means, I'll use it anyway. You ignorati who think that because some fool stops playing beer pong long enough to slam some code ought to be supported in his bid to take over the world's information system just got your comeuppance. The stock lost 11% today and would have lost more had it not been propped up, for the second trading day, by Morgan Stanley, which seems to have a penchant for throwing their client's money away (and you KNOW what that means if they trade for you). Were it not for the support of Morgan Stanley, Facebook would likely have been down at least to $30 and maybe it would have collapsed by now.
At this point, the big investment funds that went out on a limb with FB are looking to cut their losses. It will be a bad week. Normally, when the stock of a IPO hits it's floor, it has nowhere to go but up, but this observer says FB will not go up, because they have nothing to offer for the future. No business model, no long-term loyalty base, no nothing but controversy now. Both Zuckerberg and his minority partner are playing tax-avoidance games which are also responsibility-avoidance moves. The fall of Facebook stock might be slowed by day-traders playing it's options, but those options can't give the stock value, they can only delay the inevitable. Investors bypassed the faults of the company and bought the shares because they believed that they were on an up-elevator. Now that they know that their ride has small ups and big downs, they will get off that ride quickly.
NASDAQ will shelter the stock by the end of the week. Facebook users will use the product, from which Zuckerberg recovers about 20 cents on the recoverable dollar, just until something glitzier comes along, or until some sort of major privacy breach occurs, and I rate that as a strong possibility; given the slapdash way the company is managed for finance, it's probably managed for security the same way.
I don't have a Facebook account, simply because I can get what I want more securely elsewhere. When the current crop of Facebook users come to share my attitude, and they will, Facebook's market penetration will begin a slide from which they will not recover.
Remember MySpace? I didn't jump on that bandwagon, either. I have Twitter accounts, but don't use them personally in my circle, which pretty much relies on email, telephone or personal contact. I occasionally send text messages. I'm connected well enough, and share what I want via my blogs.
As the kids grow up, they will shed Facebook, too.
Now, given those conditions, who the HELL wants to invest in such an enterprise?
Aren't there regulations now on selling short as a result of the 1929 crash? Maybe buying it and selling it immediately, although I don't think there was ever an uptick, which, IIRC is required before a short sale may be executed.
Posted by: Windy Wilson | May 24, 2012 at 15:56
I wish I had bought some options on it and sold it short.
Aaah, hindsight.
Posted by: PawPaw | May 22, 2012 at 15:39