(MoneyWatch) COMMENTARY With Facebook (FB) stock trading far below the $38 initial public offering price and headlines claiming that lead underwriter Morgan Stanley (MS) mishandled the IPO, the sharks are circling, as attorneys representing investors ready multiple lawsuits. Apparently, someone must pay for the losses, and it must have been the investment bank's fault. If you're asking why, this video says Morgan Stanley should have disclosed more: Though I'm not usually a defender of Wall Street, I feel compelled to chime in this time. Morgan Stanley's job was to sell the Facebook story, while detailing all of the risks. Facebook's initial registration filing to go public was 179 pages, which I bet few read. Had they read them, however, they would have seen the following ... Continue reading →
What is the economic and political impact of President Obama's State of the Union speech? MoneyWatch editors Jill Schlesinger and Jack Otter are joined by economist and MoneyWatch blogger Mark Thoma, and CBSNews.com senior political reporter Brian Montopoli. Have a question for the team? E-mail AskTheExperts@moneywatch. Or, use the chat feature to join the conversation. Continue reading →
(Credit: AP) (MoneyWatch) Facebook (FB) finally had its IPO, with insiders cashing out and selling 57 percent of the available shares. A number of people -- not just CEO Mark Zuckerberg -- and companies have seen their net worth rocket upward. In addition to the influence that money brings, these individuals and companies will have the pedigree in coming years of having been one of those involved with Facebook early on, meaning that they enter the Silicon Valley Pantheon, much the way as early backers and employees of such companies as Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Google (GOOG) did. So, who are these people? Read on, as we present a combination of those at the top of Zuckerberg's management team and others who, whether from ... Continue reading →
Day 214 | $90,717 paid | $0 till freedom On August 29th, 2011, seven months ago to the day, I went online to check the balance of my student debt. I graduated from Harvard Business School with my MBA and $101k of student debt in May 2009 and I had made 21 monthly loan payments of $1,057 since then. I was expecting to see a balance of around $80k or so. I had failed to take interest into account; the balance actually stood at $90,717. Feeling trapped, I challenged myself to pay off my student debt within ten months. I had no idea how I was going to do it. I didn’t have a huge stockpile of cash, my 12-month salary after tax was less ... Continue reading →
MENLO PARK, CA (The Borowitz Report) – On the eve of Facebook’s IPO, Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg published the following letter to potential investors: Dear Potential Investor: For years, you’ve wasted your time on Facebook. Now here’s your chance to waste your money on it, too. Tomorrow is Facebook’s IPO, and I know what some of you are thinking. How will Facebook be any different from the dot-com bubble of the early 2000’s? For one thing, those bad dot-com stocks were all speculation and hype, and weren’t based on real businesses. Facebook, on the other hand, is based on a solid foundation of angry birds and imaginary sheep. Second, Facebook is the most successful social network in the world, enabling millions to share information ... Continue reading →
