Business
Facebook Stock Falls Below IPO Price
Facebook’s stock slid below its offering price in morning trading on Monday and ended the day below that level, following a lackluster debut day.
Facebook fell as low as $33 in the first half-hour of trade, but it closed at around $34.03 on Monday. That’s down 11 per cent from Friday’s $38.23 closing price, according to a CNN report.
Though Facebook was one of the most highly anticipated initial public offerings in recent memory, the stock closed with a gain of just 23 cents on Friday after trading was delayed.
Shares barely breached $42 at their peak on Friday — which came at the start of trading — and spent most of the day floating between $40 and $42 each.
More than 80 million shares changed hands in the first 30 seconds of trading on Friday. Volume spiked to about 567 million shares by the end of the session, setting a new volume record for IPOs.
“When some people didn’t see a pop on day one, they got out,” said Nathan Drona, a senior vice president of equity research at ABR Investment Strategy.
That rapid sell off was reflected in the intense volume levels that continued on Monday. Nearly 168 million shares changed hands during the trading day.
The social media site set its final IPO price late Thursday, pricing its shares at $38 apiece. That price was set by a consortium of 33 underwriters led by Morgan Stanley, along with JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.
The chief executive of Nasdaq OMX, Robert Greifeld, said he was “embarrassed” by the technical glitches that caused the stock’s debut to be delayed.
The glitch reportedly kept some traders from knowing for more than two hours whether their orders had been completed or cancelled, leading some pundits to wonder whether the delay eroded Facebook’s debut.
To prevent a repeat of such delays, Nasdaq said Monday that it has tweaked its IPO process and will no longer accept last-minute changes to orders for shares of an IPO.
The ABR analyst Drona, said he had expected an initial pop of Facebook’s shares. But the current trading level is already near his price target of $31 to $33 per share. He cites Facebook’s lack of mobile revenue as a major downside to the stock.
“Facebook has said they’re working on it, and [critics] seem to have a great deal of confidence that they’ll nail it,” Drona said. “But they don’t have a model in place right now.
Without a solid plan, you don’t know how you’re going to make money on a large part of your user base. And that’s a concern.”
Meanwhile, other newly public tech companies also took a dive on Friday, including Groupon and LinkedIn. Zynga, the maker of FarmVille and other games that are played mostly on Facebook, plunged more than 10% on Friday.
Groupon recovered its losses and then some on Monday, gaining about 7.6%. Zynga and LinkedIn each extended their losses.
Business
Kenyan Runners Dominate Berlin Marathons
Kenya made it a clean sweep at the Berlin Marathon with Sabastian Sawe winning the men’s race and Rosemary Wanjiru triumphing in the women’s.
Sawe finished in two hours, two minutes and 16 seconds to make it three wins in his first three marathons.
The 30-year-old, who was victorious at this year’s London Marathon, set a sizzling pace as he left the field behind and ran much of the race surrounded only by his pacesetters.
Japan’s Akasaki Akira came second after a powerful latter half of the race, finishing almost four minutes behind Sawe, while Ethiopia’s Chimdessa Debele followed in third.
“I did my best and I am happy for this performance,” said Sawe.
“I am so happy for this year. I felt well but you cannot change the weather. Next year will be better.”
Sawe had Kelvin Kiptum’s 2023 world record of 2:00:35 in his sights when he reached halfway in 1:00:12, but faded towards the end.
In the women’s race, Wanjiru sped away from the lead pack after 25 kilometers before finishing in 2:21:05.
Ethiopia’s Dera Dida followed three seconds behind Wanjiru, with Azmera Gebru, also of Ethiopia, coming third in 2:21:29.
Wanjiru’s time was 12 minutes slower than compatriot Ruth Chepng’etich’s world record of 2:09:56, which she set in Chicago in 2024.
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