Facebook Plunges in Second Day of Trading

AP Photo/Paul Sakuma
Alexander Abad-Santos 6,129 Views May 21, 2012

Do you hear that?  That's the sound of the vaunted Facebook stock falling around $5 or 13 percent in the stock market this morning.That other sound you may hear is investors panicking. You see, what was supposed to be the sexiest IPO of all time actually turned out to be pretty lackluster as the stock closed last Friday at $38.23, about only 0.6 percent higher than it was priced at--even though it set the record having the highest volume of shares traded on its debut day. Arvind Bhatia, a tech analyst with the Sterne Agee investment firm, told the San Jose Mercury News that Facebook's IPO was "a little bit surprising and disappointing ... At the same time, you could give kudos to the underwriters because they priced it pretty close to where it's trading." While another analyst took bearish stance in Bloomberg, “There are only so many people that are going to buy into a hyper-growth story." 

As the way it seems with finance--there are also analysts who say Facebook's lackluster performance on Friday and today's hangover is actually a good thing. "I'm kind of glad there wasn't a big pop. Had this thing traded up 50 percent, it would just make the bar that much higher in terms of what the company has to deliver in revenues to avoid disappointing investors," another analyst told the Mercury News.

 

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at aabadsantos at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

Related Articles   More by Alexander Abad-Santos

You Might Have to Wait a Bit Longer for Facebook's IPO

Silicon Valley in a Funk After Facebook IPO Flop

Facebook Is Stable Enough for Kayak to IPO Now

 

Anthony Weiner Covers Up a New Photo Scandal: Mistaking NYC for Pittsburgh

Anthony Weiner Is Beating the Tabloids at Their Own Game on His New Selfies

Elsewhere on the Web

User Comments

Please type your comment and click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be prompted to log in or register

  • The Atlantic Wire on Twitter
  • The Atlantic Wire RSS Feed
  • The Atlantic Wire iPhone App