There were some wild, unprecedented - frankly stunning - swings in some very large, high-profile stocks last week. The press concentrated on Meta, nee Facebook, and Amazon as the yin and yang, the negative and positive, of the market. Facebook (how long before Zuckerberg abandons Meta? I give it a year) managed to lose a quarter of a trillion dollars [...]
Today’s topic du jour isn’t even a word but an abbreviated name. Whereas yesterday markets were somewhat spooked by a relatively obscure British firm, Provident, today they are again by still another. This time it’s WPP Plc, an advertising aggregation firm that owns a sizable portfolio of ad agencies located all around the world. Given that position, the company’s fortunes, [...]
This will be a short note as I have family obligations to attend this afternoon. My daughter is home for spring break from the great frozen north and we're headed to John Pennekamp park down in the Florida Keys this afternoon so she can thaw out. So just a few random thoughts and observations from last week's action: Mark Zuckerberg [...]
in exchange for an aggregate of 183,865,778 shares of Parent’s Class A common stock (valued at $12 billion based on the average closing price of the six trading days preceding February 18, 2014 of $65.2650 per share (“Specified Price”)) and $4 billion in cash… In addition, upon Closing, Parent will grant 45,966,444 restricted stock units to WhatsApp employees (valued at $3 billion based on the Specified [...]
I have to call this out. Representing this move as an intelligent, strategic corporate decision looks, from the other guys point of view, like you're spitting in his face. Via Reuters: Facebook has crystallized its blunder of an initial public offering with a stock buyback. Mark Zuckerberg’s social network will essentially cut its outstanding share count by about 101 million, [...]
Facebook closed the week on a new low and the press is replete with tales of IPO investors' woes, the demoralizing effect on employees and whether CEO Zuckerberg is in over his hoodie. Slate even featured a ridiculous article by a University of Washington professor advocating the nationalization of the company because it "has become a public good and an [...]
It is said that bull markets climb a wall of worry but if that were true, then Wall and Broad should look like downtown Pamplona in July with market bears gored, trampled, spindled, mutilated and wrapped around the buttonwood tree. The list of worries for investors seems to grow by the day with slowing Chinese growth center stage one day [...]
Facebook finally came public last week and the first day of trading saw the stock basically close flat. The financial commentariat is in a lather over the lack of a first day rise in price. Forbes, for instance, has an article titled The Failure of Facebook's IPO. That is just one of many articles on the subject, some of them [...]
Thinking Things Over May 6, 2012 Volume II, Number 18: The Facebook Phenomenon and Its Economic Impact By John L. Chapman, Ph.D. Canton, Ohio. Facebook, Inc. begins its investor roadshow this week in anticipation of an initial public offering on May 18. The company's potential is virtually unlimited, though business history is replete with should-have would-have could-have stories. Regardless of its fate [...]
What a strange week: North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong Un, tried to emulate his ancestors by firing off a rocket but it disintegrated minutes after take off. Following that Un-success the young Mr. Kim threatened to conduct a nuclear test so that his country could end "the days of enemies threatening and blackmailing us with nuclear weapons". The days [...]
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