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Since FB’s stock is structured such that Zuckerberg always has complete control[0], they are not really beholden to “Wall Street” (shareholders). Sure they want

Since FB’s stock is structured such that Zuckerberg always has complete control[0], they are not really beholden to “Wall Street” (shareholders). Sure they want the price to go up, but the CEO cannot be removed without his consent. So on some level, they must want these things to happen, either that or they don’t care. (Neither possibility is particularly good, of course.) [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/20/shareholders-wont-force-zuckerbergs-hand-in-facebook-management.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/20/shareholders-wont-force-zuck...

Ozzie_osman 6y ago
Stock price still matters for hiring.
- ggggtez 6y ago
  So does demonstrating that your company is interested in making cool products instead of hooking scammers up.
- aarongolliver 6y ago
  And acquisitions, which are are frequently paid in part (or entirely) with stock.
  - annadane 6y ago
    But acquisitions in the case of FB are used as defensive, kill-our-competition moves. Is that really justifiable?
    - frongpik 6y ago
      Same for hiring. FB's money making machine needs very few engineers, but it still needs to keep hiring to deprive potential competitors from competent programmers.
frongpik 6y ago
Zuck is just an empty shell, really. He could be replaced with a tree and the company wouldn't notice. However the moment FB reaches a plateau, everybody will dump their stocks and buy treasury notes instead.
- dsohn0 6y ago
  I don't think you have a firm grasp on what you're talking about.
- skinnymuch 6y ago
  Facebook is still worth no less than $500B if they were to plateau this coming quarter. At that market cap, their PE would go down to 19 or so. Which is perfectly acceptable because they still have a decent moat, and opportunity to expand with Whatsapp and Messenger. Future possibilities of bigger Oculus growth too. They are worth a bit under $800B right now. So even if they completely plateau with revenue and profit, the stock only drops 1/3. And this is all without them hypothetically giving a dividend too. So their cash would keep accumulating by tens of billions.
AntiImperialist 6y ago
THIS! Facebook is always being grilled by politicians and the "news" because Wallstreet doesn't control Facebook, while they control politicians and the "news". Look at this story for example. Are there scammers in the ads? Yes, all ad platforms will have some scammers. It's always been the case and it will continue to happen because there's benefit to scamming. Does FB take down scammers? Yes, constantly. So, what is the news story? There is no news story. It's just a negative hit piece to try to devalue the company so that Zuckerberg may be forced to sell more of his shares giving away his veto rights. When that happens, all of this will magically go away.
- stareatgoats 6y ago
  > Does FB take down scammers? Yes, constantly Well, in my experience: no. In Sweden where I reside and I'm sure in many other countries as well there have been regular surges of ads peddling a crypto-currency scam using fake interviews with well known celebrities as the hook ("I scored millions" etc). In 2019 I reported well over 70 of these ads and Facebook diligently reported that they investigated two (2) of these and found no reason to take action. Now, the excuse I heard regarding these was that the scammers used some sort of dynamic links that detected and redirected depending on if the clicker was an fb employee or a sucker. But give. Me. a. Break.
  - AntiImperialist 6y ago
    Just because you see scammers doesn't mean Facebook doesn't do anything. It's just too easy and too lucrative for many more scammers. There are reports of legitimate businesses being taken down by Facebook all the time. So which is it? Are they this monopoly which does too much to cull businesses or is it too liberal to scammers? Well, it is both, as long as they can twist it to mean that "Facebook bad".

Ozzie_osman 6y ago

Stock price still matters for hiring.

ggggtez 6y ago
So does demonstrating that your company is interested in making cool products instead of hooking scammers up.
aarongolliver 6y ago
And acquisitions, which are are frequently paid in part (or entirely) with stock.
- annadane 6y ago
  But acquisitions in the case of FB are used as defensive, kill-our-competition moves. Is that really justifiable?
  - frongpik 6y ago
    Same for hiring. FB's money making machine needs very few engineers, but it still needs to keep hiring to deprive potential competitors from competent programmers.

frongpik 6y ago

Zuck is just an empty shell, really. He could be replaced with a tree and the company wouldn't notice. However the moment FB reaches a plateau, everybody will dump their stocks and buy treasury notes instead.

dsohn0 6y ago
I don't think you have a firm grasp on what you're talking about.
skinnymuch 6y ago
Facebook is still worth no less than $500B if they were to plateau this coming quarter. At that market cap, their PE would go down to 19 or so. Which is perfectly acceptable because they still have a decent moat, and opportunity to expand with Whatsapp and Messenger. Future possibilities of bigger Oculus growth too. They are worth a bit under $800B right now. So even if they completely plateau with revenue and profit, the stock only drops 1/3. And this is all without them hypothetically giving a dividend too. So their cash would keep accumulating by tens of billions.

AntiImperialist 6y ago

THIS! Facebook is always being grilled by politicians and the "news" because Wallstreet doesn't control Facebook, while they control politicians and the "news". Look at this story for example. Are there scammers in the ads? Yes, all ad platforms will have some scammers. It's always been the case and it will continue to happen because there's benefit to scamming. Does FB take down scammers? Yes, constantly. So, what is the news story? There is no news story. It's just a negative hit piece to try to devalue the company so that Zuckerberg may be forced to sell more of his shares giving away his veto rights. When that happens, all of this will magically go away.

stareatgoats 6y ago
> Does FB take down scammers? Yes, constantly Well, in my experience: no. In Sweden where I reside and I'm sure in many other countries as well there have been regular surges of ads peddling a crypto-currency scam using fake interviews with well known celebrities as the hook ("I scored millions" etc). In 2019 I reported well over 70 of these ads and Facebook diligently reported that they investigated two (2) of these and found no reason to take action. Now, the excuse I heard regarding these was that the scammers used some sort of dynamic links that detected and redirected depending on if the clicker was an fb employee or a sucker. But give. Me. a. Break.
- AntiImperialist 6y ago
  Just because you see scammers doesn't mean Facebook doesn't do anything. It's just too easy and too lucrative for many more scammers. There are reports of legitimate businesses being taken down by Facebook all the time. So which is it? Are they this monopoly which does too much to cull businesses or is it too liberal to scammers? Well, it is both, as long as they can twist it to mean that "Facebook bad".