21 ms·

NASDAQ:FB

303 points by teoruiz 14y ago

chestercheetaz 14y ago
FB would have fallen more, but the underwriters of the IPO stepped in at $38 to support that level. This stock is bound to fall after today. I'm predicting $25 by the first earnings call.
- JonnieCache 14y ago
  >the underwriters of the IPO stepped in at $38 to support that level What leads you to believe that, if you don't mind me asking?
  - chestercheetaz 14y ago
    Did you watch the stock? It was dropping like a stone, then all of a sudden halted at $38, the IPO price. A WSJ article said that this was because the underwriters stepped in to support the $38 price level: "The weak start came after high expectations for the Internet giant. The company's shares were recently changing hands up $1.58, at $39.62, after touching the $38 IPO price about a half hour after it started trading. The stock had opened at $42.05. Underwriters stepped in to support the company's shares at the IPO price, according to a person familiar with the matter. There were more than 30 banks involved in the deal." This, combined with the effect on other social media stock like ZYNGA (which has halted trading twice today due to large volatility), is a sign of things to come.
deleted 14y ago
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- nknight 14y ago
  It'll probably be an hour or two, actually, it didn't start trading when the market opened. I'm not sure who decides when to pull the trigger, but apparently recent NASDAQ IPOs have been starting around 11:00 eastern, give or take a bit. Edit: CNN indicates the company decides in consultation with NASDAQ: http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/17/technology/facebook-ipo-trading-start-time/index.htm?iid=HP_LN http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/17/technology/facebook-ipo-trad...
fname 14y ago
Probably wont see the first trade for a couple more hours
- tferris 14y ago
  Why?
  - mmodahl 14y ago
    IPO opening auctions are scheduled for the middle of the day. The regular market open auction is a very busy time and if they happened at the same time, everyone would be choosing between handling their normal business or the excitement of the IPO.
  - speg 14y ago
    It's trading on the NASDAQ, and they that's just how they do it. They say they want their IPOs to stand out on their own.
teoruiz 14y ago
Apparently it starts trading at 11:00 EST.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- toemetoch 14y ago
  17:00 Brussels time
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - eroded 14y ago
    20:00 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
- sandropadin 14y ago
  I think it should start trading at 1:37 in the afternoon.
llambda 14y ago
Please note that FB doesn't begin trading until 11AM EST[1]. [1] http://money.msn.com/technology-investment/article.aspx?post=f931548b-9920-46d4-ae36-3d1256759102 http://money.msn.com/technology-investment/article.aspx?post...
- speg 14y ago
  Technically it could be any time, but if history continues it should be just before 11:00.
  - vessenes 14y ago
    Trades can go in at 10:45, Trading begins at 11 is the current plan.
- sounds 14y ago
  Definitely still not trading. Current time is 11:08AM EST.
  - jsprinkles 14y ago
    CNBC is reporting that there are communication issues preventing the IPO from trading. 11:29AM EST.
  - sounds 14y ago
    Appears to have opened at 42.05 at 11:30AM EST.
mkr-hn 14y ago
It's weird how I posted the exact same thing with a slightly different URL two hours ago and it went unnoticed: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3991295 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3991295 edit: Not complaining. It seemed like an interesting accidental split test.
- cryptoz 14y ago
  Many fewer people in North America were awake and on HN two hours ago. Timing is key.
  - tejaswiy 14y ago
    I wonder what the optimal time is to post to HN. Do people usually wake up, check HN and then go about their day? If so, around 9-10:30AM EST? Or maybe if most HNers come from the west coast, would it be 9 - 10:30AM PST?
    - mkr-hn 14y ago
      It's dangerous to go alone. Take this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3991859 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3991859
    - petercooper 14y ago
      Once you hit the front page, the time is quite relevant. But before then.. /newest is so poorly visited and read that you're really throwing yourself into the hands of lady luck and hoping there are more than a handful of people who even see your item. (Yep, tons of good stuff doesn't get voted up at all simply because no-one sees it.)
    - phillco 14y ago
      Yes, but, competition is fiercer. The beginning of a business day in the US is also the time when a lot of strong, interesting articles (from newspapers, blogs, etc) are being read by awakening HN'ers and then submitted. They can crowd out your post. But if you succeed, you'll enjoy strong inertia for a long time as people keep coming back when they should be working. Like right now :) [I think; subjective analysis etc etc]
throwaway1979 14y ago
Someone mentioned on CNBC that he had placed an order (and seem to have gotten) 100 shares of FB via e-trade. Can retail investors (aka ... unsophisticated Joes like me) get in on the IPO allocation? I thought the initial shares were only offered to large investors (> 100K purchases). This doesn't help me for FB, but would be useful info in the future.
- apaprocki 14y ago
  Yes, brokerages offer qualified customers access to IPO allocation that the brokerage has access to. It is at their discretion who they allow to participate. Generally, most brokerages will ban you from IPO access if you get allocated shares and sell them within a certain period, usually 90 days or so. Here is a description of the process for ETrade: https://us.etrade.com/e/t/prospectestation/help?id=1301050000 https://us.etrade.com/e/t/prospectestation/help?id=130105000...
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- gabaix 14y ago
  I got 50 shares from e-Trade. Never used eTrade before. It was one of the few platforms that were open for retailers. eTrade mentions that if I flip those shares in less than a month, I might not be able to get access to future IPO shares.
- trotsky 14y ago
  There are tons of Facebook shares floating around - at least partially due to the fact that they increased the offering size by 85 million shares (25%) on Wednesday. Morgan called four separate times between weds and Thursday trying to sling shares. In general it's usually harder to get allocations but not as hard as you imagine - retail investors always seem to get some.
feronull 14y ago
Heh nice on my birthday facebook went public :D
- toemetoch 14y ago
  Happy birthday!
- numbsafari 14y ago
  me too! And in fine, facebook fashion, we both just leaked "personally identifiable information" in a public forum! Happy Birthday!
revorad 14y ago
http://www.livestream.com/nasdaq/ http://www.livestream.com/nasdaq/
dirkgadsden 14y ago
If you look at the bottom right under "Key stats and ratios"[1] you can see a trace of Google creating a time with 0 (default I guess) and spitting out the year (+/- 1 because of timezones) of the Unix epoch. [1] http://d.pr/i/sMYb http://d.pr/i/sMYb
- pwang 14y ago
  I was about to post this same thing. It's the same for any stock that opened this year, and doesn't have a comparable previous year of data e.g. Zynga: http://www.google.com/finance?q=zynga http://www.google.com/finance?q=zynga
alecco 14y ago
This is like a NASCAR race, many (most?) of us watching secretly hope for a spectacular crash. It's wrong, but the potential of schadenfreude is very tempting.
- unimpressive 14y ago
  Well, considering the number of people who aren't exactly fans of Facebook, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the people watching with the most interest were the ones actively rooting for it to be a spectacular failure.
- math 14y ago
  http://www.zerohedge.com/news/facebook-european-premarket-bid-%E2%82%AC58 http://www.zerohedge.com/news/facebook-european-premarket-bi...
  - gravitronic 14y ago
    So what I'm guessing is my $40 limit order is not going to get filled...
    - hakanensari 14y ago
      It may eventually if you leave it open.
    - mmaunder 14y ago
      Give it 6 months.
      - gravitronic 14y ago
        Hahaha, that was actually what I realized.. only if it was a mistake to buy would my order get filled. Or a very random fluke resulting in a fill before it jumps to ~60+ update: got my order filled. Maybe a mistake. Please go 'like' something.
      - alecco 14y ago
joe-mccann 14y ago
The Nasdaq will be FLOODED with orders when FB begins trading. Will be interesting to see how their systems handle every algorithmic trading machine on the planet trading FB's stock...
- minimax 14y ago
  This isn't necessarily true. Many algorithmic trading strategies are driven by correlations between historical prices, none of which exist yet for FB.
  - northbranch 14y ago
    Exactly - without any data to train a model, most algorithmic and high-frequency strategies avoid IPOs.
babarock 14y ago
Is there any way to know who owned the shares in Fb (and how much) as of yesterday evening (pre-IPO)? I don't know if such an info is made public. If it is, anyone has a link?
- flavien_bessede 14y ago
  http://whoownsfacebook.com/ http://whoownsfacebook.com/
- ericcholis 14y ago
  This is all I could find, from 2011: http://www.learnvest.com/2011/01/a-money-lesson-from-facebooks-50-billion-valuation-287/ http://www.learnvest.com/2011/01/a-money-lesson-from-faceboo... I believe the figures were also based on an earlier $50 Billion valuation.
- verganileonardo 14y ago
  I find this infographic really helpful: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/facebook-ipo/?wide=1 http://blog.kissmetrics.com/facebook-ipo/?wide=1
- dzlobin 14y ago
  Here is a live-update of exactly that: http://www.cnbc.com/id/47388424?__source=msnbc|fb|&par=msnbc http://www.cnbc.com/id/47388424?__source=msnbc|fb|&par=m...
randomdrake 14y ago
The opening ceremony was actually kind of cool: http://www.livestream.com/nasdaq/video?clipId=pla_80cca9bb-4637-4286-b343-42552074576b&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb http://www.livestream.com/nasdaq/video?clipId=pla_80cca9bb-4... Seeing the sheer joy on Mark Zuckerberg's face was nice. I thought he was going to shed a tear, actually. It's always inspiring to see a geek get his day.
- Munksgaard 14y ago
  Are they just clapping for 3 minutes straight or am I missing something here?
  - timr 14y ago
    Those things are just PR stunts so that news directors have nice clips for the evening news -- they're gathered up, told to clap for a long time, and the cameras roll. In this case, it's particularly transparent because they're doing it in the park. The NYSE at least does this on that balcony overlooking the "trading floor", which gives it a look of legitimacy.
    - zeroonetwothree 14y ago
      It's at the FB campus, not "in the park".
  - skeletonjelly 14y ago
    I'm not sure what I was expecting to see. Maybe a board with the price on it? That was a cool glimpse but pretty surreal
- swalsh 14y ago
  That's the face of a man who just became a billionaire over night.
  - rabidsnail 14y ago
    He was a billionaire already.
mountaineer 14y ago
How is The Motley Fool a related company?
joering2 14y ago
ok, so this started happening last night for me and some friends I pinged: I clicked on a picture (multiple of them!) and each time I see this shit: http://postimage.org/image/rvdiya58z/full/ http://postimage.org/image/rvdiya58z/full/ I say Facebook IS in a lot of financial troubles!!
- jessedhillon 14y ago
  I think you have a virus or other kind of malware on your box.
  - joering2 14y ago
    nope, sorry. I thought the same but after trying on 3 different browsers and 2 computers, same effect. to downvoters: hello Facebook staff!
- ceejayoz 14y ago
  Uh, you're on some third-party app, not Facebook's native photo system.
  - joering2 14y ago
    sorry but I am not. this is click on FB photo inside my FB wall.
    - ceejayoz 14y ago
      No, it isn't. Facebook doesn't have a "Photo of the day", and if you hadn't hidden the URL on that screenshot you'd see "apps.facebook.com/..." in it. Facebook's photo interface looks like http://cl.ly/1w2M180k0C402q1Y0Y31 http://cl.ly/1w2M180k0C402q1Y0Y31. You clicked a wall post from an application.
    - joering2 14y ago
      well, I dont remember but even IF -- why would any application on the site blew up such a huge ad? isnt that affecting FB image?
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
KeepTalking 14y ago
Is everyone able to access Facebook without any trouble ?
corford 14y ago
Although I'm generally a market bear and have been saying we're in a bubble for months, even I'm having a hard time seeing how there isn't going to be an almighty pop today given the sheer amount of irrational exuberance over this. My bet is FB closes somewhere between $55 and $65. Anyone else fancy making a prediction? [ edit: stuck an upper limit on my prediction to make it more interesting :) ]
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- pilom 14y ago
  My bet is it closes somewhere between $35 and $45. The owners pushed back against the bankers at every turn to push for a higher price. If they don't price at the start of the day effectively, the original shareholders lose money to the bankers who set up the IPO like what happened to LinkedIn.
  - corford 14y ago
    That's a good point I hadn't considered. As it looks at the moment, I'm glad I stuck to arm chair punditory (if that's even a word!) and didn't buy any shares...
dr_ 14y ago
$45 opening per Bloomberg
- BoldAsAnEagle 14y ago
  They are late and they did not achieve their "higher than 30% (or was it 50?) of initial offering".
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
AhtiK 14y ago
Enjoy the live broadcast and streaming by WSJ: http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2012/05/18/live-blog-facebooks-trading-debut/?mod=yahoo_hs http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2012/05/18/live-blog-faceboo... Occasionally shows streams from the NASDAQ opening with Mark Zuckerberg and the crowd.
ahi 14y ago
etrade seems to be down.
blantonl 14y ago
First trade at 11:30:09 CST 2000 Shares at $42.05 (SELL)
- alexchamberlain 14y ago
  It's falling fast... $40 atm. Edit: $40 seems to be a barrier (not a surprise). It will take a little while for all the limit orders to be satisfied there.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - mootothemax 14y ago
    Seems like a few trading sites are having issues with high traffic levels - not sure if that'd cause an increase OR a decrease :)
    - alexchamberlain 14y ago
      It sounds like NASDAQ were having traffic issues. Be interesting to hear the excuse.
      - adoyle 14y ago
        I just got this on Fidelity: Attention: FB order execution slowness Certain marketplaces are experiencing slowness resulting in delays in execution for Facebook orders. Industry technology teams outside of Fidelity are working to correct the problem. This slowness is being experienced by other online brokers as well, not just Fidelity. This has been reported as a market-wide issue. We do not yet know when the problem will be resolved. We appreciate your patience.
      - alecco 14y ago
        The market's full of morons today. http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2012/05/18/crazy-but-true-a-4000-facebook-limit-order/?mod=e2tw http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2012/05/18/crazy-but-true-a-...
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
mmaunder 14y ago
Trading in Zynga halted due to 13% drop and a circuit breaker tripped.
- alecco 14y ago
  This is a very serious warning sign, FB IPO didn't take off as some people expected. This is going to be a very important day to the valley. http://www.businessinsider.com/zynga-shares-crushed-and-halted-after-weak-facebook-ipo-pop-2012-5 http://www.businessinsider.com/zynga-shares-crushed-and-halt...
  - marekmroz 14y ago
    Down it goes... I thought the price would climb before going down due to dumping, this is unexpected.
  - Aqua_Geek 14y ago
    Is it a bad sign? Doesn't it mean that shares were priced appropriately and FB didn't leave much on the table?
    - kposehn 14y ago
      It does indeed mean that the shares were priced appropriately. I would expect some movement up and down over the quarter until they deliver results. That is when we'll see the movement either way.
      - gtirloni 14y ago
        s/until/if ever/
    - jwilliams 14y ago
      It's a fine line. Markets care a lot about sentiment. A nice 10-15% pop on the first day leaves everyone feeling pretty good - and a nice halo around the company. If the price levels off.. Well people will be inclined to be more critical. They'll be wanting FB to start moving the stock north sooner. I was a bit curious about the pricing. As you say, they want the maximum investment value, but there is some sense in buying the management team some time. A billion less may have saved them a lot of headaches dealing with market criticism, given them time to get some wins... Anyway. It's a brave new world when you suddenly have to start answering to shareholders.
kamaal 14y ago
The share price is dropping. So far very exciting 20 minutes. The stock price is fluctuating up and down. It went to $40 its now back to where it started. Things volatile at this moment.
- jcfrei 14y ago
  if google finance' trading volume is accurate, it's pretty crazy right now: Vol / Avg. of 119.31M shares after 20 minutes (out of 421,233,615 shares)!
  - emiranda 14y ago
    What exactly does that mean if you don't mind me asking?
    - jonknee 14y ago
      That 25% of the company has changed hands in 20 minutes.
      - ABS 14y ago
        25% of the shares offered, not of the company
        etrain 14y ago
        Nope 2.8b is total shares outstanding. $38*2.8b or roughly 100b ~= facebooks current valuation. That said, I'm pretty sure the volume info included the offering of 10% of the company.
  - adambyrtek 14y ago
    Interestingly, Google Finance also says: "Total Shares 2.74B".
hiddenstage 14y ago
If fb isn't worth $100B, how can Instagram be worth $1B? We are not in a bubble. Disclaimer: Bought some fb.
- chestercheetaz 14y ago
  bad news: Instagram isn't worth $1B. sorry. hope you have a good cost basis.
  - hiddenstage 14y ago
    How many stocks have the potential to be the biggest company in the world? Fb is one of them.
    - chestercheetaz 14y ago
      well if it really is then i hope it turns around somewhere soon. As of now, it's looking like 0% for the first day, and even that is an artificial level supported by the underwriters of the IPO. I'd cut your losses, get out soon, and wait until the stock corrects somewhere lower, mid-20s or even below.
      - hiddenstage 14y ago
        There are hedge funds and banks who NEED this stock to go up. They bought in at 38. This thing will hit 55 way before it hits 25.
        chestercheetaz 14y ago
        good luck with your investment.
    - thereallurch 14y ago
      You're living in a pipe dream if you think a data analytics company will become the biggest company in the world.
nicholassmith 14y ago
Keep in mind everyone that they're trading at IPO price, making them worth over $100bn. If that's a failure then I hope one day to fail that badly.
- rphlx 14y ago
  It's not a failure for Facebook obviously. It's a failure for their institutional and retail investors, who were sold a very high initial valuation with little near-term upside.
emiranda 14y ago
So... that percentage next to the stock price represents the change in value since it opened? Mine currently says +0.99 (2.61%) but the stock opened at $42 and the current price is $39. I would think the number should be a negative value/percentage.
- clueless 14y ago
  It's based on the $38 pricing, not the opening.
  - emiranda 14y ago
    Why is that?
    - mertd 14y ago
      because "in theory" that's where it closed yesterday.
rauljara 14y ago
[Kilgore Trout had written a novel call the Big Board.] It was about an Earthling man and woman who were kidnapped by extra-terrestrials. They were put on display in a zoo on a planet called Zircon-212. These fictitious people in the zoo had a big board supposedly showing stock market quotations and comodity prices along one wall of their habitat, and a news ticker, and a telephone that was supposedly connected to a brokerage on Earth. The creatures on Zircon-212 told their captives that they had invested a million dollars for them back on Earth, and that it was up to the captives to manage it so that they would be fabulously wealthy when they were returned to Earth. The telephone and the big board and the ticker were all fakes, of course. They were simply stimulants to make the Earthlings perform vividly for the crowds at the zoo--to make them jump up and down and cheer, or gloat, or sulk, or tear their hair, to be scared shitless or to feel as contented as babies in their mothers' arms. The Earthlings did very well on paper. That was part of the rigging, of course. And religion got mixed up in it, too. The news ticker reminded them that the President of the United States had declared National Prayer Week, and that everybody should pray. The Earthlings had had a bad week on the market before that. They had lost a small fortune in olive oil futures. So they gave praying a whirl. It worked. Olive oil went up. -Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 5
- option_greek 14y ago
  Makes me wonder if each of us are in such environment already.
  - adhipg 14y ago
    The Matrix.
  - jiojioiogrt 14y ago
    Pathetic extra, only I am real and you are all just extras.
    - zuss 14y ago
      The me-simulation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism
twakefield 14y ago
Seems like Morgan Stanley and friends priced/played it perfectly for their client. Isn't that their role...to get the highest IPO price for the company they represent? It seems like the companies get screwed when there is big post IPO pop. It's a way for the banks to reward their customers at the expense of the company.
- brown9-2 14y ago
  This assumes that Morgan Stanley was firmly in control of most of the details. Some reports, like this one, make it seem like Facebook had them by the short hairs (notice how FB knocked down the usual 7% commission to 1%): http://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-goldman-sachs-facebook-ipo-2012-5?page=5 http://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-goldman-sachs-...
- anon808 14y ago
  maybe. for a high profile ipo like this it's also a big marketing event, i think the company and bankers like to price in a decent bump. but looks like now they're stepping in to support the price . . . financially good news for fb, pr-wise not so much. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-18/facebook-underwriters-said-to-support-stock-at-near-38-a-share.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-18/facebook-underwrite...
- pbiggar 14y ago
  Excellent point. Any pop after an IPO is money the company should have raised if it had priced better (or in many cases, if it had been able to price better). The child comment about Facebook having MS by the short hairs is also valid - I wonder if Facebook did the price engineering here so the institutional investors didn't take their money?
j2labs 14y ago
The reason for FB's drop seems simple. The options have been traded on secondmarket for a long time already, meaning institutional investors have already been playing the invest-in-facebook game for a long time. The only folks left are the normal folks and I don't believe they have the money to drive the price up significantly. In short: this is a liquidity event for Facebook ownership and nothing else.
JonnieCache 14y ago
$> ping us.etrade.com PING us.etrade.com (12.153.224.21): 56 data bytes Request timeout for icmp_seq 0 36 bytes from etrade-fina.edge4.atlanta2.level3.net (4.30.52.206): Communication prohibited by filter Vr HL TOS Len ID Flg off TTL Pro cks Src Dst 4 5 00 5400 115d 0 0000 31 01 9939 10.0.232.100 12.153.224.21 Request timeout for icmp_seq 1 Request timeout for icmp_seq 2 Request timeout for icmp_seq 3 Request timeout for icmp_seq 4 ^C --- us.etrade.com ping statistics --- 6 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100.0% packet loss Now that's demand. (etrade is an online brokerage service for independent traders, and their network is very unhappy right now.)
- phalek 14y ago
  Communication prohibited by filter No, that's restriction.
  - JonnieCache 14y ago
    As I understand it, that's their ISP cutting off the tidal wave of traffic at the network edge to prevent it disrupting the core, like they do in the event of a DDOS.
grecy 14y ago
Lots of people talking about using etrade.com to get in on this... is there an equivalent for those of us in Canada? i.e. Super fast and easy to setup account where I can immediately buy some shares?
- biot 14y ago
  Scotiabank bought E-Trade Canada, now iTRADE: http://scotiaitrade.scotiabank.com/itrade/ http://scotiaitrade.scotiabank.com/itrade/ There are tons of options these days though.
ramanujan 14y ago
This is Hacker News. The top-voted comment on this thread really should be words of praise for what Zuckerberg and his team have accomplished. Every hacker, every entrepreneur, every creator should derive inspiration and uplift from Facebook's story. It's a rare bright day in the middle of the worst economic environment since the 1930s. It doesn't matter whether the company will grow into a $100B valuation. It does matter that it was started in February 2004, by a single guy with a computer, and has affected the lives of billions of people and created billions of dollars in wealth. Maybe the markets won't be kind to them. Maybe they won't grow into the $100B valuation. But outside of those who are direct competitors, I can't understand anyone who actually wishes them ill. As a creator, as an entrepreneur, as a hacker, if you tear down Facebook you're just tearing down yourself.
- paul 14y ago
  Agreed. The growing levels of envy and cynicism on hn is unhealthy. Trashing other people's efforts doesn't make your own more successful.
  - nextstep 14y ago
    I agree. Nearly every mention in HN comments of a newly-successful tech company (Groupon, Zynga, Instagram, etc.) includes regurgitation of the same bullshit anecdotes used to perpetuate the narrative assigned to each company. I have always felt that envy plays a big role in which companies we choose to hate.
    - corford 14y ago
      As a post above me points out, don't confuse envy with cynicism. Groupon and Zynga are both awful companies (in terms of furthering the cause of humanity at least) and both are currently trading at under their initial IPO price. Hate is a strong word but forgive me if I (and others) don't choose to point to Zynga and Groupon as paragons of success.
    - beedogs 14y ago
      Every one of the companies you just named are horrible. There's more to it than "envy". It's naive to kneejerk like that.
jwilliams 14y ago
There is a fair bit of talk about what this will do for the angel community in SV -- Using Google as a bit of pre-history and what happened there. Anybody got any insights into the different cohorts? Generalising like hell - But, I'm assuming Facebook angels will be quite different flavour to Google ones?
yumraj 14y ago
Amazing.. Are there other examples of where on IPO, especially as hyped as this, companies went flat, less than 0.1% change. NOTE: IPO had 480 million or so stocks, and the net Volume was 486 million.
rondon1 14y ago
They put in a floor at 38.00 because they cannot stand the idea of the stock going down on the first day of trading.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
teflonhook 14y ago
Goodbye tech IPO window.
sohels 14y ago
Opened at 42 and closed at 38 on the first day... wonder what that means...
glenntzke 14y ago
And it ends at $38.2318. Looks like that desired $40 didn't pan out.
justinweiss 14y ago
This whole thing reminded me that there was a Facebook employee in my "class" for an internship I had in 2004. Little did I know... http://cl.ly/0g3r3Q3W0K360g2y0g06 http://cl.ly/0g3r3Q3W0K360g2y0g06 A valuation of a whole $4 million!
jiggy2011 14y ago
Facebook is (apparently) worth 80 Billion and it employs 3539 people and I somehow doubt that they are employing many contractors either. Is this possibly a scary thought for the future in terms of job creation? If you can be on track to becoming the biggest communications (and advertising) provider on the planet whilst employing close to nobody, what happens if other industries end up following this model?

303 points by teoruiz 14y ago

FB would have fallen more, but the underwriters of the IPO stepped in at $38 to support that level. This stock is bound to fall after today. I'm predicting $25 by the first earnings call.

JonnieCache 14y ago
>the underwriters of the IPO stepped in at $38 to support that level What leads you to believe that, if you don't mind me asking?
- chestercheetaz 14y ago
  Did you watch the stock? It was dropping like a stone, then all of a sudden halted at $38, the IPO price. A WSJ article said that this was because the underwriters stepped in to support the $38 price level: "The weak start came after high expectations for the Internet giant. The company's shares were recently changing hands up $1.58, at $39.62, after touching the $38 IPO price about a half hour after it started trading. The stock had opened at $42.05. Underwriters stepped in to support the company's shares at the IPO price, according to a person familiar with the matter. There were more than 30 banks involved in the deal." This, combined with the effect on other social media stock like ZYNGA (which has halted trading twice today due to large volatility), is a sign of things to come.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

nknight 14y ago
It'll probably be an hour or two, actually, it didn't start trading when the market opened. I'm not sure who decides when to pull the trigger, but apparently recent NASDAQ IPOs have been starting around 11:00 eastern, give or take a bit. Edit: CNN indicates the company decides in consultation with NASDAQ: http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/17/technology/facebook-ipo-trading-start-time/index.htm?iid=HP_LN http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/17/technology/facebook-ipo-trad...

fname 14y ago

Probably wont see the first trade for a couple more hours

tferris 14y ago
Why?
- mmodahl 14y ago
  IPO opening auctions are scheduled for the middle of the day. The regular market open auction is a very busy time and if they happened at the same time, everyone would be choosing between handling their normal business or the excitement of the IPO.
- speg 14y ago
  It's trading on the NASDAQ, and they that's just how they do it. They say they want their IPOs to stand out on their own.

teoruiz 14y ago

Apparently it starts trading at 11:00 EST.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
toemetoch 14y ago
17:00 Brussels time
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- eroded 14y ago
  20:00 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
sandropadin 14y ago
I think it should start trading at 1:37 in the afternoon.

llambda 14y ago

Please note that FB doesn't begin trading until 11AM EST[1]. [1] http://money.msn.com/technology-investment/article.aspx?post=f931548b-9920-46d4-ae36-3d1256759102 http://money.msn.com/technology-investment/article.aspx?post...

speg 14y ago
Technically it could be any time, but if history continues it should be just before 11:00.
- vessenes 14y ago
  Trades can go in at 10:45, Trading begins at 11 is the current plan.
sounds 14y ago
Definitely still not trading. Current time is 11:08AM EST.
- jsprinkles 14y ago
  CNBC is reporting that there are communication issues preventing the IPO from trading. 11:29AM EST.
- sounds 14y ago
  Appears to have opened at 42.05 at 11:30AM EST.

mkr-hn 14y ago

It's weird how I posted the exact same thing with a slightly different URL two hours ago and it went unnoticed: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3991295 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3991295 edit: Not complaining. It seemed like an interesting accidental split test.

cryptoz 14y ago
Many fewer people in North America were awake and on HN two hours ago. Timing is key.
- tejaswiy 14y ago
  I wonder what the optimal time is to post to HN. Do people usually wake up, check HN and then go about their day? If so, around 9-10:30AM EST? Or maybe if most HNers come from the west coast, would it be 9 - 10:30AM PST?
  - mkr-hn 14y ago
    It's dangerous to go alone. Take this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3991859 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3991859
  - petercooper 14y ago
    Once you hit the front page, the time is quite relevant. But before then.. /newest is so poorly visited and read that you're really throwing yourself into the hands of lady luck and hoping there are more than a handful of people who even see your item. (Yep, tons of good stuff doesn't get voted up at all simply because no-one sees it.)
  - phillco 14y ago
    Yes, but, competition is fiercer. The beginning of a business day in the US is also the time when a lot of strong, interesting articles (from newspapers, blogs, etc) are being read by awakening HN'ers and then submitted. They can crowd out your post. But if you succeed, you'll enjoy strong inertia for a long time as people keep coming back when they should be working. Like right now :) [I think; subjective analysis etc etc]

throwaway1979 14y ago

Someone mentioned on CNBC that he had placed an order (and seem to have gotten) 100 shares of FB via e-trade. Can retail investors (aka ... unsophisticated Joes like me) get in on the IPO allocation? I thought the initial shares were only offered to large investors (> 100K purchases). This doesn't help me for FB, but would be useful info in the future.

apaprocki 14y ago
Yes, brokerages offer qualified customers access to IPO allocation that the brokerage has access to. It is at their discretion who they allow to participate. Generally, most brokerages will ban you from IPO access if you get allocated shares and sell them within a certain period, usually 90 days or so. Here is a description of the process for ETrade: https://us.etrade.com/e/t/prospectestation/help?id=1301050000 https://us.etrade.com/e/t/prospectestation/help?id=130105000...
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
gabaix 14y ago
I got 50 shares from e-Trade. Never used eTrade before. It was one of the few platforms that were open for retailers. eTrade mentions that if I flip those shares in less than a month, I might not be able to get access to future IPO shares.
trotsky 14y ago
There are tons of Facebook shares floating around - at least partially due to the fact that they increased the offering size by 85 million shares (25%) on Wednesday. Morgan called four separate times between weds and Thursday trying to sling shares. In general it's usually harder to get allocations but not as hard as you imagine - retail investors always seem to get some.

feronull 14y ago

Heh nice on my birthday facebook went public :D

toemetoch 14y ago
Happy birthday!
numbsafari 14y ago
me too! And in fine, facebook fashion, we both just leaked "personally identifiable information" in a public forum! Happy Birthday!

revorad 14y ago

http://www.livestream.com/nasdaq/ http://www.livestream.com/nasdaq/

dirkgadsden 14y ago

If you look at the bottom right under "Key stats and ratios"[1] you can see a trace of Google creating a time with 0 (default I guess) and spitting out the year (+/- 1 because of timezones) of the Unix epoch. [1] http://d.pr/i/sMYb http://d.pr/i/sMYb

pwang 14y ago
I was about to post this same thing. It's the same for any stock that opened this year, and doesn't have a comparable previous year of data e.g. Zynga: http://www.google.com/finance?q=zynga http://www.google.com/finance?q=zynga

alecco 14y ago

This is like a NASCAR race, many (most?) of us watching secretly hope for a spectacular crash. It's wrong, but the potential of schadenfreude is very tempting.

unimpressive 14y ago
Well, considering the number of people who aren't exactly fans of Facebook, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the people watching with the most interest were the ones actively rooting for it to be a spectacular failure.
math 14y ago
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/facebook-european-premarket-bid-%E2%82%AC58 http://www.zerohedge.com/news/facebook-european-premarket-bi...
- gravitronic 14y ago
  So what I'm guessing is my $40 limit order is not going to get filled...
  - hakanensari 14y ago
    It may eventually if you leave it open.
  - mmaunder 14y ago
    Give it 6 months.
    - gravitronic 14y ago
      Hahaha, that was actually what I realized.. only if it was a mistake to buy would my order get filled. Or a very random fluke resulting in a fill before it jumps to ~60+ update: got my order filled. Maybe a mistake. Please go 'like' something.
    - alecco 14y ago

joe-mccann 14y ago

The Nasdaq will be FLOODED with orders when FB begins trading. Will be interesting to see how their systems handle every algorithmic trading machine on the planet trading FB's stock...

minimax 14y ago
This isn't necessarily true. Many algorithmic trading strategies are driven by correlations between historical prices, none of which exist yet for FB.
- northbranch 14y ago
  Exactly - without any data to train a model, most algorithmic and high-frequency strategies avoid IPOs.

babarock 14y ago

Is there any way to know who owned the shares in Fb (and how much) as of yesterday evening (pre-IPO)? I don't know if such an info is made public. If it is, anyone has a link?

flavien_bessede 14y ago
http://whoownsfacebook.com/ http://whoownsfacebook.com/
ericcholis 14y ago
This is all I could find, from 2011: http://www.learnvest.com/2011/01/a-money-lesson-from-facebooks-50-billion-valuation-287/ http://www.learnvest.com/2011/01/a-money-lesson-from-faceboo... I believe the figures were also based on an earlier $50 Billion valuation.
verganileonardo 14y ago
I find this infographic really helpful: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/facebook-ipo/?wide=1 http://blog.kissmetrics.com/facebook-ipo/?wide=1
dzlobin 14y ago
Here is a live-update of exactly that: http://www.cnbc.com/id/47388424?__source=msnbc|fb|&par=msnbc http://www.cnbc.com/id/47388424?__source=msnbc|fb|&par=m...

randomdrake 14y ago

The opening ceremony was actually kind of cool: http://www.livestream.com/nasdaq/video?clipId=pla_80cca9bb-4637-4286-b343-42552074576b&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb http://www.livestream.com/nasdaq/video?clipId=pla_80cca9bb-4... Seeing the sheer joy on Mark Zuckerberg's face was nice. I thought he was going to shed a tear, actually. It's always inspiring to see a geek get his day.

Munksgaard 14y ago
Are they just clapping for 3 minutes straight or am I missing something here?
- timr 14y ago
  Those things are just PR stunts so that news directors have nice clips for the evening news -- they're gathered up, told to clap for a long time, and the cameras roll. In this case, it's particularly transparent because they're doing it in the park. The NYSE at least does this on that balcony overlooking the "trading floor", which gives it a look of legitimacy.
  - zeroonetwothree 14y ago
    It's at the FB campus, not "in the park".
- skeletonjelly 14y ago
  I'm not sure what I was expecting to see. Maybe a board with the price on it? That was a cool glimpse but pretty surreal
swalsh 14y ago
That's the face of a man who just became a billionaire over night.
- rabidsnail 14y ago
  He was a billionaire already.

mountaineer 14y ago

How is The Motley Fool a related company?

joering2 14y ago

ok, so this started happening last night for me and some friends I pinged: I clicked on a picture (multiple of them!) and each time I see this shit: http://postimage.org/image/rvdiya58z/full/ http://postimage.org/image/rvdiya58z/full/ I say Facebook IS in a lot of financial troubles!!

jessedhillon 14y ago
I think you have a virus or other kind of malware on your box.
- joering2 14y ago
  nope, sorry. I thought the same but after trying on 3 different browsers and 2 computers, same effect. to downvoters: hello Facebook staff!
ceejayoz 14y ago
Uh, you're on some third-party app, not Facebook's native photo system.
- joering2 14y ago
  sorry but I am not. this is click on FB photo inside my FB wall.
  - ceejayoz 14y ago
    No, it isn't. Facebook doesn't have a "Photo of the day", and if you hadn't hidden the URL on that screenshot you'd see "apps.facebook.com/..." in it. Facebook's photo interface looks like http://cl.ly/1w2M180k0C402q1Y0Y31 http://cl.ly/1w2M180k0C402q1Y0Y31. You clicked a wall post from an application.
  - joering2 14y ago
    well, I dont remember but even IF -- why would any application on the site blew up such a huge ad? isnt that affecting FB image?

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

KeepTalking 14y ago

Is everyone able to access Facebook without any trouble ?

corford 14y ago

Although I'm generally a market bear and have been saying we're in a bubble for months, even I'm having a hard time seeing how there isn't going to be an almighty pop today given the sheer amount of irrational exuberance over this. My bet is FB closes somewhere between $55 and $65. Anyone else fancy making a prediction? [ edit: stuck an upper limit on my prediction to make it more interesting :) ]

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
pilom 14y ago
My bet is it closes somewhere between $35 and $45. The owners pushed back against the bankers at every turn to push for a higher price. If they don't price at the start of the day effectively, the original shareholders lose money to the bankers who set up the IPO like what happened to LinkedIn.
- corford 14y ago
  That's a good point I hadn't considered. As it looks at the moment, I'm glad I stuck to arm chair punditory (if that's even a word!) and didn't buy any shares...

dr_ 14y ago

$45 opening per Bloomberg

BoldAsAnEagle 14y ago
They are late and they did not achieve their "higher than 30% (or was it 50?) of initial offering".

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

AhtiK 14y ago

Enjoy the live broadcast and streaming by WSJ: http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2012/05/18/live-blog-facebooks-trading-debut/?mod=yahoo_hs http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2012/05/18/live-blog-faceboo... Occasionally shows streams from the NASDAQ opening with Mark Zuckerberg and the crowd.

ahi 14y ago

etrade seems to be down.

blantonl 14y ago

First trade at 11:30:09 CST 2000 Shares at $42.05 (SELL)

alexchamberlain 14y ago
It's falling fast... $40 atm. Edit: $40 seems to be a barrier (not a surprise). It will take a little while for all the limit orders to be satisfied there.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- mootothemax 14y ago
  Seems like a few trading sites are having issues with high traffic levels - not sure if that'd cause an increase OR a decrease :)
  - alexchamberlain 14y ago
    It sounds like NASDAQ were having traffic issues. Be interesting to hear the excuse.
    - adoyle 14y ago
      I just got this on Fidelity: Attention: FB order execution slowness Certain marketplaces are experiencing slowness resulting in delays in execution for Facebook orders. Industry technology teams outside of Fidelity are working to correct the problem. This slowness is being experienced by other online brokers as well, not just Fidelity. This has been reported as a market-wide issue. We do not yet know when the problem will be resolved. We appreciate your patience.
    - alecco 14y ago
      The market's full of morons today. http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2012/05/18/crazy-but-true-a-4000-facebook-limit-order/?mod=e2tw http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2012/05/18/crazy-but-true-a-...

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

mmaunder 14y ago

Trading in Zynga halted due to 13% drop and a circuit breaker tripped.

alecco 14y ago
This is a very serious warning sign, FB IPO didn't take off as some people expected. This is going to be a very important day to the valley. http://www.businessinsider.com/zynga-shares-crushed-and-halted-after-weak-facebook-ipo-pop-2012-5 http://www.businessinsider.com/zynga-shares-crushed-and-halt...
- marekmroz 14y ago
  Down it goes... I thought the price would climb before going down due to dumping, this is unexpected.
- Aqua_Geek 14y ago
  Is it a bad sign? Doesn't it mean that shares were priced appropriately and FB didn't leave much on the table?
  - kposehn 14y ago
    It does indeed mean that the shares were priced appropriately. I would expect some movement up and down over the quarter until they deliver results. That is when we'll see the movement either way.
    - gtirloni 14y ago
      s/until/if ever/
  - jwilliams 14y ago
    It's a fine line. Markets care a lot about sentiment. A nice 10-15% pop on the first day leaves everyone feeling pretty good - and a nice halo around the company. If the price levels off.. Well people will be inclined to be more critical. They'll be wanting FB to start moving the stock north sooner. I was a bit curious about the pricing. As you say, they want the maximum investment value, but there is some sense in buying the management team some time. A billion less may have saved them a lot of headaches dealing with market criticism, given them time to get some wins... Anyway. It's a brave new world when you suddenly have to start answering to shareholders.

kamaal 14y ago

The share price is dropping. So far very exciting 20 minutes. The stock price is fluctuating up and down. It went to $40 its now back to where it started. Things volatile at this moment.

jcfrei 14y ago
if google finance' trading volume is accurate, it's pretty crazy right now: Vol / Avg. of 119.31M shares after 20 minutes (out of 421,233,615 shares)!
- emiranda 14y ago
  What exactly does that mean if you don't mind me asking?
  - jonknee 14y ago
    That 25% of the company has changed hands in 20 minutes.
    - ABS 14y ago
      25% of the shares offered, not of the company
      - etrain 14y ago
        Nope 2.8b is total shares outstanding. $38*2.8b or roughly 100b ~= facebooks current valuation. That said, I'm pretty sure the volume info included the offering of 10% of the company.
- adambyrtek 14y ago
  Interestingly, Google Finance also says: "Total Shares 2.74B".

hiddenstage 14y ago

If fb isn't worth $100B, how can Instagram be worth $1B? We are not in a bubble. Disclaimer: Bought some fb.

chestercheetaz 14y ago
bad news: Instagram isn't worth $1B. sorry. hope you have a good cost basis.
- hiddenstage 14y ago
  How many stocks have the potential to be the biggest company in the world? Fb is one of them.
  - chestercheetaz 14y ago
    well if it really is then i hope it turns around somewhere soon. As of now, it's looking like 0% for the first day, and even that is an artificial level supported by the underwriters of the IPO. I'd cut your losses, get out soon, and wait until the stock corrects somewhere lower, mid-20s or even below.
    - hiddenstage 14y ago
      There are hedge funds and banks who NEED this stock to go up. They bought in at 38. This thing will hit 55 way before it hits 25.
      - chestercheetaz 14y ago
        good luck with your investment.
  - thereallurch 14y ago
    You're living in a pipe dream if you think a data analytics company will become the biggest company in the world.

nicholassmith 14y ago

Keep in mind everyone that they're trading at IPO price, making them worth over $100bn. If that's a failure then I hope one day to fail that badly.

rphlx 14y ago
It's not a failure for Facebook obviously. It's a failure for their institutional and retail investors, who were sold a very high initial valuation with little near-term upside.

emiranda 14y ago

So... that percentage next to the stock price represents the change in value since it opened? Mine currently says +0.99 (2.61%) but the stock opened at $42 and the current price is $39. I would think the number should be a negative value/percentage.

clueless 14y ago
It's based on the $38 pricing, not the opening.
- emiranda 14y ago
  Why is that?
  - mertd 14y ago
    because "in theory" that's where it closed yesterday.

rauljara 14y ago

[Kilgore Trout had written a novel call the Big Board.] It was about an Earthling man and woman who were kidnapped by extra-terrestrials. They were put on display in a zoo on a planet called Zircon-212. These fictitious people in the zoo had a big board supposedly showing stock market quotations and comodity prices along one wall of their habitat, and a news ticker, and a telephone that was supposedly connected to a brokerage on Earth. The creatures on Zircon-212 told their captives that they had invested a million dollars for them back on Earth, and that it was up to the captives to manage it so that they would be fabulously wealthy when they were returned to Earth. The telephone and the big board and the ticker were all fakes, of course. They were simply stimulants to make the Earthlings perform vividly for the crowds at the zoo--to make them jump up and down and cheer, or gloat, or sulk, or tear their hair, to be scared shitless or to feel as contented as babies in their mothers' arms. The Earthlings did very well on paper. That was part of the rigging, of course. And religion got mixed up in it, too. The news ticker reminded them that the President of the United States had declared National Prayer Week, and that everybody should pray. The Earthlings had had a bad week on the market before that. They had lost a small fortune in olive oil futures. So they gave praying a whirl. It worked. Olive oil went up. -Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 5

option_greek 14y ago
Makes me wonder if each of us are in such environment already.
- adhipg 14y ago
  The Matrix.
- jiojioiogrt 14y ago
  Pathetic extra, only I am real and you are all just extras.
  - zuss 14y ago
    The me-simulation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism

twakefield 14y ago

Seems like Morgan Stanley and friends priced/played it perfectly for their client. Isn't that their role...to get the highest IPO price for the company they represent? It seems like the companies get screwed when there is big post IPO pop. It's a way for the banks to reward their customers at the expense of the company.

brown9-2 14y ago
This assumes that Morgan Stanley was firmly in control of most of the details. Some reports, like this one, make it seem like Facebook had them by the short hairs (notice how FB knocked down the usual 7% commission to 1%): http://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-goldman-sachs-facebook-ipo-2012-5?page=5 http://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-goldman-sachs-...
anon808 14y ago
maybe. for a high profile ipo like this it's also a big marketing event, i think the company and bankers like to price in a decent bump. but looks like now they're stepping in to support the price . . . financially good news for fb, pr-wise not so much. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-18/facebook-underwriters-said-to-support-stock-at-near-38-a-share.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-18/facebook-underwrite...
pbiggar 14y ago
Excellent point. Any pop after an IPO is money the company should have raised if it had priced better (or in many cases, if it had been able to price better). The child comment about Facebook having MS by the short hairs is also valid - I wonder if Facebook did the price engineering here so the institutional investors didn't take their money?

j2labs 14y ago

The reason for FB's drop seems simple. The options have been traded on secondmarket for a long time already, meaning institutional investors have already been playing the invest-in-facebook game for a long time. The only folks left are the normal folks and I don't believe they have the money to drive the price up significantly. In short: this is a liquidity event for Facebook ownership and nothing else.

JonnieCache 14y ago

$> ping us.etrade.com PING us.etrade.com (12.153.224.21): 56 data bytes Request timeout for icmp_seq 0 36 bytes from etrade-fina.edge4.atlanta2.level3.net (4.30.52.206): Communication prohibited by filter Vr HL TOS Len ID Flg off TTL Pro cks Src Dst 4 5 00 5400 115d 0 0000 31 01 9939 10.0.232.100 12.153.224.21 Request timeout for icmp_seq 1 Request timeout for icmp_seq 2 Request timeout for icmp_seq 3 Request timeout for icmp_seq 4 ^C --- us.etrade.com ping statistics --- 6 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100.0% packet loss Now that's demand. (etrade is an online brokerage service for independent traders, and their network is very unhappy right now.)

phalek 14y ago
Communication prohibited by filter No, that's restriction.
- JonnieCache 14y ago
  As I understand it, that's their ISP cutting off the tidal wave of traffic at the network edge to prevent it disrupting the core, like they do in the event of a DDOS.

grecy 14y ago

Lots of people talking about using etrade.com to get in on this... is there an equivalent for those of us in Canada? i.e. Super fast and easy to setup account where I can immediately buy some shares?

biot 14y ago
Scotiabank bought E-Trade Canada, now iTRADE: http://scotiaitrade.scotiabank.com/itrade/ http://scotiaitrade.scotiabank.com/itrade/ There are tons of options these days though.

ramanujan 14y ago

This is Hacker News. The top-voted comment on this thread really should be words of praise for what Zuckerberg and his team have accomplished. Every hacker, every entrepreneur, every creator should derive inspiration and uplift from Facebook's story. It's a rare bright day in the middle of the worst economic environment since the 1930s. It doesn't matter whether the company will grow into a $100B valuation. It does matter that it was started in February 2004, by a single guy with a computer, and has affected the lives of billions of people and created billions of dollars in wealth. Maybe the markets won't be kind to them. Maybe they won't grow into the $100B valuation. But outside of those who are direct competitors, I can't understand anyone who actually wishes them ill. As a creator, as an entrepreneur, as a hacker, if you tear down Facebook you're just tearing down yourself.

paul 14y ago
Agreed. The growing levels of envy and cynicism on hn is unhealthy. Trashing other people's efforts doesn't make your own more successful.
- nextstep 14y ago
  I agree. Nearly every mention in HN comments of a newly-successful tech company (Groupon, Zynga, Instagram, etc.) includes regurgitation of the same bullshit anecdotes used to perpetuate the narrative assigned to each company. I have always felt that envy plays a big role in which companies we choose to hate.
  - corford 14y ago
    As a post above me points out, don't confuse envy with cynicism. Groupon and Zynga are both awful companies (in terms of furthering the cause of humanity at least) and both are currently trading at under their initial IPO price. Hate is a strong word but forgive me if I (and others) don't choose to point to Zynga and Groupon as paragons of success.
  - beedogs 14y ago
    Every one of the companies you just named are horrible. There's more to it than "envy". It's naive to kneejerk like that.

jwilliams 14y ago

There is a fair bit of talk about what this will do for the angel community in SV -- Using Google as a bit of pre-history and what happened there. Anybody got any insights into the different cohorts? Generalising like hell - But, I'm assuming Facebook angels will be quite different flavour to Google ones?

yumraj 14y ago

Amazing.. Are there other examples of where on IPO, especially as hyped as this, companies went flat, less than 0.1% change. NOTE: IPO had 480 million or so stocks, and the net Volume was 486 million.

rondon1 14y ago

They put in a floor at 38.00 because they cannot stand the idea of the stock going down on the first day of trading.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

teflonhook 14y ago

Goodbye tech IPO window.

sohels 14y ago

Opened at 42 and closed at 38 on the first day... wonder what that means...

glenntzke 14y ago

And it ends at $38.2318. Looks like that desired $40 didn't pan out.

justinweiss 14y ago

This whole thing reminded me that there was a Facebook employee in my "class" for an internship I had in 2004. Little did I know... http://cl.ly/0g3r3Q3W0K360g2y0g06 http://cl.ly/0g3r3Q3W0K360g2y0g06 A valuation of a whole $4 million!

jiggy2011 14y ago

Facebook is (apparently) worth 80 Billion and it employs 3539 people and I somehow doubt that they are employing many contractors either. Is this possibly a scary thought for the future in terms of job creation? If you can be on track to becoming the biggest communications (and advertising) provider on the planet whilst employing close to nobody, what happens if other industries end up following this model?