Facebook underwriters prop up stock as it nears break-even mark

[marmar]

NEW YORK – The big pop in Facebook Inc. shares never came.

Buyers did not rush into the market to snap up shares of the social networker. And the big Wall Street banks that brought Facebook public scrambled to prevent the stock from collapsing into declines.

The underwriters averted a potential debacle by scooping up shares of the company during the Nasdaq debut. This propped up the stock, keeping it above the $38 offering price through most of the day.

“When a deal gets priced and breaks price on the first day, that’s definitely a major embarrassment," said trader Andrew Frankel, co-president of Stuart Frankel & Co. "But it didn’t do that here – at least for the time being.” .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-facebook-trading-20120518,0,6622700.story

[Skinner]

1. ...

[girl gone mad]

2. The muppets are becoming self-aware. n/t

[Canuckistanian]

21. LOL

That one got me rolling....

[exboyfil]

3. They are probably shoveling this crap

into their elderly customer's managed portfolio as we read this. Calling up the mutual fund managers and telling them to take one for the team. It will all bet buried.

[DCKit]

6. What you said. But they can't prop it up for long.

I've been wrong before (even before the market became totally rigged), but when >50% of Americans say "Facebook is a fad", there's not a whole lot of hope that the stock is going to make anyone but the original owners (and the brokers of the IPO) rich.

This deal reeks in so many ways.

[exboyfil]

11. Yes and I am sure the common man is going to pay

for it in some fashion (probably in different ways). The first is what I thought when I heard where propping it up. You don't expect them to hold onto that paper. As they say in Wall Street "slap some lipstick on that pig". Then the taxpayer will be asked to bail out some fool who risked his business on the IPO.

I don't mind if suckers buy it directly. That is their business. I do mind when back stratching pension fund managers load their portfolio with this (hey the attorney that ran the IPO plays golf with Pension USA fund manager for example. Maybe we can get some 529 money while we are at it.

[Speck Tater]

4. The stock market used to be a place...

... to rsasie money for growing a new company, or expanding an existing one.

Now mature companies that don't actually need money to grow with are IPO'd for the sole purpose of putting cash in the pockets of the owners.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. That cant be right! Facebook has a surefire business model!

Um, wait. What is facebook's business model?

[DCKit]

7. Selling ad space and users personal information to anyone with $$$$.

Agent Mike loves them, too. It's one-stop shopping for the intelligence agencies.

[Warren DeMontague]

8. Yeah, i know.

Slightly creepy, but i still use it.

[NYC Liberal]

17. Click-through rates on FB's ads are abysmal though.

Google actually captures people not just by their interests, but when they're actually looking to buy.

If I'm dicking around on Facebook, chances are pretty low that I'm shopping around for Widget, even if Facebook's "data" says I'm the type of person who might be interested.

If I'm searching Google for "Widget" then chances are I'm looking to buy.

[joe_sixpack]

9. It's so damn easy to make money these days, as long as you already have some.

Wealthy investors had an inside shot at getting this stock at its IPO price of 38 dollars. They probably had sell orders in so that when it hit its high of around 42, they locked in a 10 percent gain. If you had an extra million or so, that's not a bad take for one day. Not very much of a risk for them either. I thought I read that Bono too might have made quite a chunk of change off of this.

[Ghost Dog]

16. Even more so...

... As a point of order, Facebook really went quietly IPO about a year or so at $15, and was being traded on 'private exchanges.' Today was its general public IPO.

/... http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com.es/

[Woody Woodpecker]

10. Facebook is fading, and fading fast.

the IPO is a joke.

It will go in the way of MySpace.

Stocks will plummet to 0.01 and delisted within a year.

[shimonitanegi]

23. Bought for $580m, sold for $35m: Murdoch cuts his MySpace losses.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/bought-for-580m-sold-for-35m-murdoch-cuts-his-myspace-losses-2304660.html

[Scurrilous]

12. Heh.

[HopeHoops]

13. Idiot bait IPO.

[RagAss]

14. Good. Fuck everyone involved.

[NCarolinawoman]

15. This stock was totally over hyped by the media.

You couldn't get away from it.

What phony times we live in.

[Prometheus Bound]

18. It's pretty hard to find someone who is really hot on this stock.

Really. In all of the news articles I read about it everyone is laughing at it in the comment sections. In all countries.

[Dawson Leery]

19. Selling personal data to marketers is profitable.

Though it is not worth anywhere near one hundred billion dollars.
Anyone who bought Facebook stock is a fool to say the least.

[Canuckistanian]

20. "prop up"?

You mean the stock is less than a day old and it's already in need of outside help?

That's sad. I'm SO glad I didn't take out that third mortgage on the house.

[TheManInTheMac]

22. I saw a poll right here on DU saying that 50% of Americans think FB is a fad.

Told me right there this was going to be a flop. People comparing this to Google's IPO failed to see the fact that Google provided a critical product. Granted, there were many other search engines out there, but Google did it best, continues to do it best, and continues to develop new products and services, whereas Facebook is a one-trick pony. And a long-in-the-tooth one at that.