May 21, 2012
Facebook’s second day on the market
Day 2 of trading for Facebook’s newly minted stock is over, and things didn’t improve quite as people had hoped. Shares of the hyped offering were down nearly $4 from the IPO price of $38, prompting complaints that Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter, had priced the shares too high. (Usually, you hear the opposite—that underwriters price IPOs too low and reap a windfall in the process.)
Others also grumbled that too many shares were offered, especially after the late addition of 84 million shares. That probably did tamp initial demand, but it still seems like an odd complaint given that just over 15 percent of the company was available for purchase. CEO Mark Zuckerberg also remains still undisputedly in control, as Anup Srivastava pointed out to me earlier this year.
Now that Facebook has finally gone public, check out our previous coverage on the topic.
- Anup Srivastava, an assistant professor of accounting, commented on Facebook’s governance structure and asked, Is the company really worth $100 billion? At the close of the market today, that answer is no. But if you’re curious about whether the fundamentals bear out the current valuation, check out Srivastava’s interactive tool.
- Yael Hochberg, an assistant professor of finance, predicted that Facebook would lose little, if any, momentum after the IPO. Despite the trading problems Friday and dip in price today, it doesn't look like the company will lose much steam from the snafus.