Facebook IPO the worst in a decade?

29 May 2012

Facebook’s IPO has been cited as almost the worst-performing IPO in 10 years, according to reports.

At the close of trading yesterday, Bloomberg said Facebook’s drop of 13.1pc was the worst IPO in a decade.

Analysing the first five days of trading for the 10 largest IPOs, Bloomberg reported that Visa saw its share price rise 45.4pc, followed by MasterCard at 21.8pc.

While Facebook and its co-founder Mark Zuckerberg may console themselves at having raised US$16bn, the company is not out of the woods yet as it faces a maelstrom of class action suits from irate investors.

These relate to the clumsy decision to issue an additional 25m shares just before the IPO began, the raising of the IPO price to US$38 as well as revelations that select investors were told about lower earnings while smaller investors were told there might be a fall in earnings.

bloomberg

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com