Facebook is a social networking website based in Palo Alto, California. Founded by Mark Zuckerburg, it was previously a social network limited to university students before allowing anyone over the age of 13. The website currently has 300 million active users worldwide, and has overtaken News Corp-owned MySpace as the most used social network by worldwide monthly active users, according to a Compete.com study.
On its second day of trading, Facebook’s stock has closed to finish at $34.03, nearly 11 percent down from where it closed and wiped some $19 billion of its market value. Today was its biggest test after its lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley, decided to stop artificially inflating the price – something it is alleged it has done on Friday to make sure it did not fall below $38.
After opening the trading bell at its headquarters at California, and a 30-minute delay pushing its expected 11:00am launch; Social networking website Facebook has officially become a publicly-traded company at 11:30am New York Time (or 1:30am Melbourne Time) at US$42.05 per share.
Image: Tom Solari/TECHGEEK.com.au
Hours before Facebook finally kickstart this entire IPO process in New York, many of you are wondering what the hell is the big fuss? Unless you happen to be into technology, or just happen to work in either the financials or technology industry, you would have simply just heard it was going to go and offer its shares to the market.
Welcome to the Morning Briefing for 18 May, 2012. Facebook has finally announced what it will price its shares, all to go on sale tonight on the NASDAQ. Here are some of the headlines making around last night when news broke.
Image: Tom Solari/TECHGEEK.com.au
Facebook is reported to have changed its IPO price – again – before it is set to go public, rumoured to be on Thursday (Friday our time). Multiple sources, including CNBC and AllThingsD are noting that Facebook’s IPO price will be within $34 and $38. The new price will value Facebook between $92 billion and $103 billion.
Welcome to the Morning Briefing for the 7th of May, where we highlight the tech stories from across the web that broke while you were sleeping and what we are watching here at TECHGEEK.com.au.
Facebook has responded with Yahoo’s claims of patent infringement with its own counter-claim that Yahoo has violated 10 of its own patents – including its patents on social networking, privacy controls and in advertising.
Privacy is important. There is no doubt about it. When apps send entire address books, unencrypted, without permission, people have every right to be upset. I am not denying that.
But what has stunned me is something that happens almost every time a company, such as Facebook, changes anything. And that is the amount of people that will instantly call it a privacy concern, or likewise, begin acting like it’s a public outrage that things as simple as Timeline have been made.
Yahoo has launched its lawsuit against social networking company Facebook, claiming that it had infringed on 10 of its patents – all relating to social networking, customisation and advertising on the web. And, of course, it launched it before Facebook’s IPO coming up this year.
Timeline is expanding! Facebook has announced that the new profile design will now be integrated to pages, meaning that companies will – like profiles – go all the way back to the past and add content easily to their very own “timeline”.
Is it Yahoo’s last stand? A report by the New York Times has revealed that the company is threatening Facebook with a patent lawsuit if it does not pay licensing fees for 10 to 20 patents it owns, which include advertising, web page personalisation, messaging and social networking. Yes, the signs of a dying company are definitely present.
Image: Tom Solari/TECHGEEK.com.au
While there is now a debate if Facebook and other social media websites could lead to addictions, a psychiatrist is calling for the use of such sites for treating young people suffering from mental health issues.
Whether you like it or hate it, Facebook sees its future on Timeline. The new profile design is being rolled out to all users, and a new report has stated that Facebook plans to push the design onto brand pages.
If you have read Chris Southcott’s little complaint about Windows Phone 7 (and listened here, and here), then you would have also noted his dislike of the Facebook app. Well, Facebook has pushed a new update that is said to fix some of the problems of the app.
Spying on players in order to get personal data, no wonder Facebook and Zynga need each other. A former ex-Zynga staff member has opened up an IAmA Reddit post, revealing both the good and the not-so-good bits of the company.