BY SHAYNDI RAICE, ANUPREETA DAS AND GINA CHON Less than three days before Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering, Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman decided to boost the number of shares the company would offer investors by 25%, said people familiar with the planning. His main adviser at lead underwriter Morgan Stanley assured him there was plenty of demand, they said. That decision by the 41-year-old Facebook executive may have doomed any real chance the social-networking company had that its stock would jump on its first day of trading—a hallmark of successful IPOs. On Tuesday, the second full day of trading, Facebook shares fell $3.03, or 8.9%, to $31, ...BY SHAYNDI RAICE, ANUPREETA DAS AND GINA CHON Less than three days before Facebook Inc.'s initial public ... Continue reading →
BY NOÉMIE BISSERBE AND DAVID ENRICH PARIS—Crédit Agricole SA, a giant French bank facing mounting losses in Greece, said Tuesday it is redoubling efforts to get help from an unlikely source: the Greek central bank. Crédit Agricole bought Emporiki Bank of Greece SA in 2006, part of an ill-fated strategy to expand into fast-growing markets. The acquisition saddled the French lender with billions of euros in losses and is one reason its shares have plunged more than 70% over the past year. At Crédit Agricole's annual meeting Tuesday, held underneath Paris's iconic Louvre museum, a parade of shareholders yelled at executives about their Greek problems. "It's ...BY NOÉMIE BISSERBE AND DAVID ENRICH PARIS—Crédit Agricole SA, a giant French bank facing mounting losses in Greece, said ... Continue reading →
By Jessica Mead The euro crisis is bad enough, but its rapidly growing lexicon is ugly too. Banks (and a few journalists too, it must be admitted) have taken in recent months to creating some gruesome word-mashes to describe the events in Greece and the rest of the region. It all really started with ‘Grexit’ (Greek euro exit, to most ordinary folk) — a term coined by Citigroup back in February. Initially met with groans from most quarters, the quasi-word is now in common usage among analysts and investors across the board. Now it seems Citigroup has created a monster. Monday, Deutsche Bank came up with the idea for a currency for Greece to use without fully leaving the monetary union. Its nickname, inevitably, is ... Continue reading →