Looking back to Friday, the day of the big Facebook IPO, we reported that there was some sort of technical issue that hampered trading early on. According to sources on the inside, it could all be traced back to a communication breakdown that left the big trading desks wondering, who bought what, and at what price. I would guess that makes it difficult to gage success.
According to Nasdaq executive Robert Greifeld, the offering was an imperfect success. He verified there was indeed a communication issue that caused some confusion at the beginning of the day, but that there was no evidence to suggest it had an impact overall.
Greifeld comments on the events of Friday’s Facebook IPO launch:
“It would lead a reasonable person to conclude that it didn’t have an impact on the stock price,”
“It was quite successful, but clearly we’re not happy with our performance,”
As you can imagine, many investors were turned off by Facebook’s less than stellar showing. Reports now tell that shares just barely broke $42. As of an hour ago, Facebook is actually trading under the originally negotiated $38 per share price. I bet many are questing that $105 billion valuation now.
But, I think it’s is way too early to be calling this thing a success or an infinite flop. As the old cliche says, only time will tell. While it is true that Facebook’s only true source of revenue is advertising, the same can also be said for almost any other media resource we enjoy today. It’s America folks, if you don’t buy products, everything falls apart. The only difference is, Facebook is now one of those products.
Apparently the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Nasdaq are investigating the cause of the breakdown, but I doubt we’ll hear any big news back from either party. We will be keeping an eye on Facebook shares today, and you can check back hear for regular news and updates on the IPO.