• Facebook launched on the Nasdaq exchange in new York
• 80 million shares sold in first 30 seconds of trading
• But share price almost falls below $38 offer value
• Launch delayed amid confusion at Nasdaq
• Follow our Facebook shareholder wealth tracker here
1.42pm ET/6.42pm BST: if you haven’t checked out our live tracker of top Facebook shareholders’ wealth based on today’s fluctuations in the FB share price, you can have a look here.
1.22pm ET/6.22pm BST: Guardian tech editor Charles Arthur looks at what’s next for Facebook:
What to expect now? Don’t be surprised if the next big thing is a Facebook phone – running its own software and developed from top to bottom to involve you in the site all the time.
Zuckerberg’s team has been advised to do this directly, because it needs to reach the “next billion” internet users, and they are mainly going to be using mobile phones, not desktop or laptop computers. Selling its own phone would mean it could make itself the background hum of many peoples’ lives everywhere – and show adverts and collect data on its own terms.
Read Charles’ full analysis here.
1.16pm ET/6.16pm BST: Dominic Rushe checks in on the Internet gaming company Zynga, and what the poor performance of its stock today could mean for Facebook:
Facebook’s shares have recovered after dropping worryingly close to their $38 offer price. But over at Zynga there are still problems.
As we mentioned earlier, it looks likely that Facebook’s battalion of bankers moved to make sure FB didn’t drop below $38. Zynga had no such luck and was down more than 13% at one point. It’s now down nearly 6%.
Zynga is basically a way to trade Facebook, since nearly all of its business comes from the social network. so is this what FB’s share fall would look like if the bankers hadn’t piled in? just sayin’.
1.09pm ET/6.09pm BST: till death do us part – or your company doth go public. will the Facebook IPO cause a spike in shareholder divorces as new millionaires are created and relationships become more liquid, as it were? The Financial Times has a morbidly droll (and paywall-protected) report:
“When Google went public, there was a wave of divorces. When Cisco went public there was a wave of divorces,” says Steve Cone, a divorce attorney based in Palo Alto, near the social network’s Menlo Park headquarters. “I expect a similar wave shortly after Facebook goes public.”
12.55pm ET/5.55pm BST: Facebook staffers have flocked to the social network to bask in the post-IPO glow, the Guardian’s Josh Halliday reports.
Lindsey Cochran, who works in marketing at Facebook, writes: “I vividly remember signing up for facebook in the upstairs quad of 508 Thurston … in April of 2004. I can’t believe I am now going to be a part of such a historic moment. Feeling incredibly lucky!”
Gabe Hernandez, another staffer, says: “While I won’t be in any of the Facebook offices to celebrate today, I am wearing my hoodie in solidarity. Thanks everyone for making my job far from the last place I ever want to be. now stay focused and keep hacking!”
Meanwhile, Zuck has returned to his Facebook to note: “This is a pretty awesome hack.”
12.39pm ET/5.39pm BST: if you don’t own Facebook shares yet, are you currently missing an historic opportunity to get in on the ground level of a company that’s about to break all previous records for stock growth?
Warren Buffett apparently doesn’t think so. Here’s what the Oracle of Omaha has to say about IPOs in general:
It’s almost a mathematical impossibility to imagine that, out of the thousands of things for sale on a given day, the most attractively priced is the one being sold by a knowledgeable seller (company insiders) to a less-knowledgeable buyer (investors).
12.34pm ET/5.34pm BST: have underwriters stepped in to hold Facebook shares above $38?
Business Insider gets a look at the order book, sent in by Twitter user @Bourbon_Meyer.
“It strongly appears that there’s a huge perma-bid at $38 on Facebook,” Joe Weisenthal writes. “Check out the big mass of yellow on the left column… all those bids at $38.”
12.18pm ET/5.18pm BST: Facebook stock has been out of the gate for 50 minutes. After opening at just above $42 the stock dropped to the break-even level of $38. But instead of continuing to fall, the stock staged a resolute recovery:
So what happened? Here’s Dominic Rushe:
Facebook’s shares came dangerously close to falling below $38, the offer price, and have now rallied. this chart shows what happened. the speculation is that the underwriters have piled in and supported the price that we are chasing now. if it’s true, they can’t support the price forever and you can expect FB’s shares to fall next week.
But – and it’s a big but – there have clearly been problems with the IPO at Nasdaq, orders for shares were backed up and may have caused these weird price movements.
CodeBlue and Empire Today® Announce Strategic Alliance to Deliver a Next Day Flooring Program to the Insurance Industry
Eau Claire, WI (PRWEB) July 27, 2010
CodeBlue announced today a strategic alliance with Empire Today, LLC, the largest specialty flooring retailer in the USA, in the service delivery of the recently announced CodeBlue Flooring program. This new alliance provides the insurance industry with a comprehensive flooring program that includes: appointment scheduling at the convenience of the home or business owner; in-home or in-office product selection; next day installation on over one hundred styles of Carpet and Flooring products; 24 to 48 hour claim resolution; and a guarantee of policyholder satisfaction.
CodeBlue Flooring combines CodeBlues property claim management expertise, with...
There are however signs that investors are underwhelmed. Zynga shares were suspended after they crashed this morning – not a good sign as the game firm is largely dependent on Facebook for its business.
12.03pm ET/5.03pm BST: One stock that really doesn’t like what it’s seeing in the Facebook IPO: Zynga, the Internet gaming company.
Zynga, which depends on Facebook for a platform for its games, had an underwhelming IPO of its own in December, when it fell 5 percent in its first day of trading.
So far today Zynga is down 13 percent.
UPDATE 12.07pm ET: Trading in Zynga shares has now been halted.
11.56am ET/4.56pm BST: A look back at the hot tech IPO of 20 years ago:
Celebrating Facebook IPO today while reflecting on AOL IPO 20 years ago. Valuation was $70 million. most thought Internet was a fad. #wrong
— Steve Case (@SteveCase) May 18, 2012
11.50am ET/4.50pm BST: as the Facebook share price settles back to $38, the Guardian’s Nils Pratley contributes his analysis of the pricing dynamics. if the stock goes too high, insiders who sold in advance of the IPO may resent the investment bank. A share price of around $41 would satisfy most everyone, Pratley writes:
A 10% pop should satisfy the IPO advisers. When you start getting to 20%-plus, the insiders who are selling feel short-changed and accuse the investment bank advisers of misjudging demand. 10% is ok – it meets the “leave something on the table for the next person” rule.
11.36am ET/4.36pm BST: how will Facebook shares perform in the first day of trading? Tell us what you think.
For extra credit, let us know in the comments what you think the high price and the low price of the day will be.
11.34am ET/4.34pm BST: how big is trader interest in Facebook? 82 million shares were traded in the first 30 seconds, according to Nasdaq.
The stock price is bumping along at the $40-$41 level. you can follow the stock price here.
11.30am ET/4.30pm BST: And they’re off. Facebook is now on sale – and the first shares cross at $42.05, a good deal higher than the $38/share rollout price.
For the time being, at least, the company has 100 billion reasons to cheer.
11.30am ET/4.30 pm BST: mark Zuckerberg and colleagues ringing the opening bell for Nasdaq at 9.30am ET.
Looks anticlimactic now.
11.27am ET/4.27pm BST: IPO delayed indefinitely by glitch in market: this isn’t the headline Facebook was looking for this morning.
Wow, Nasdaq found the only way possible to upstage the Facebook IPO.
— Heidi N. Moore (@moorehn) May 18, 2012
11.23am ET/4.23pm BST: Nasdaq has announced that there has been a delay in the start of Facebook trading. We’re reaching out to sources at Nasdaq to find out more about the holdup.
The latest delay is the third or fourth of the morning. Nasdaq itself puts out time call information. Meaning the market itself is failing to predict when the market will go to work.
The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that traders are having problems changing or canceling their orders ahead of the Facebook IPO.
Will Zuckerberg have to change his status again?
11.02am ET/4.02pm BST: Reuters is reporting that the opening of trading has been pushed back a bit:
Megamillions Jackpot – Become a Winner Today
Who wouldn't want to become an instant multi-millionaire? With the Mega Millions Jackpot now played in a dozen states in the country, legions of people are putting down the requisite $1 for a chance to take home the big pot of $12 million at the very least. A progressively higher jackpot prize is offered each time no one gets the winning number combination, and the increase is based on the number of people who buy the Mega Millions lottery ticket. The numbers tell their tale.
Based on records of people buying tickets to a drawing, 80% select quick picks, while the...
RT @ProducerMatthew: Reuters: Facebook IPO extended by additional 5 minutes, to trade at 11:05 AM ET – NASDAQ
— Anthony de Rosa (@AntDeRosa) May 18, 2012
10.46am ET/3.46pm BST: Facebook as a growing concern. whatever happens with the stock price today, the immense market draw of the company is plain to see in a chart tracking users, from about 300 million in March 2009 to 900 million today (blue is all Internet users worldwide; brown/gray is FB users):
10.42am ET/ 3.42pm BST: T-minus three minutes and counting: Nasdaq has just announced that trading in Facebook shares will begin at 10.45am ET.
10.37am ET/3.37pm BST: A major status update for the Facebook cofounder: as mark Zuckerberg rang the bell to open the Nasdaq exchange, his account automatically spread the news.
Zuckerberg tagged fellow executives Chris Cox, vice president of product; the chief finance officer David Ebersman; the vice president of finance Cipora Herman; and his trusted No 2, Sheryl Sandberg.
10.21am ET/3.21pm BST: Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin came in for a drubbing last week when it was revealed that he had disclaimed US citizenship in favor of residence in Singapore, which does not have a capital gains tax. Saverin responded to the criticism by saying that his move was not a tax dodge; he simply prefers Singapore.
Last night Saverin set the controversy aside to offer his former colleagues a hearty congratulations on his personal Facebook page. he misspelled his co-founder’s name – but it’s the thought that counts?
On the eve of the Facebook public float, 8-plus years in the making, I as co-founder wanted to look back and cherish Facebook’s early beginning. Congrats to everyone involved in the project from day one till today, and I especially wanted to congratulate mark Zukerberg [sic] on keeping tremendous stead-fast focus, however hard that was, on making the world a more open and connected place.
10.10am ET/3.10pm BST: Facebook is summoning great spectacle in its rollout this morning – but will the stock price hold up? When the excitement dies, will the company warrant its $104 billion valuation, and the $38 share price?
One main place investors locate value in Facebook is its potential power as an advertiser. With 900 million users and counting – and a potentially vast market in China still waiting to be tapped – Facebook has an unparalleled capacity to put ads in front of eyes.
But earlier this week, US auto manufacturer GM decided that those ads weren’t worth it, ending its Facebook campaign. the company had been spending $10 million a year to advertise on the site, but none of the reports measuring those ads’ profitability came back positive. the Economist spoke with Chris Perry, marketing chief for GM’s brand Chevrolet, who confirmed that “a routine marketing review concluded that the site delivered ‘insufficient’ results.
Companies still believe that Facebook is an indispensable tool for spreading buzz about new products, however:
That viewpoint was echoed by the senior media buyer at a major Detroit ad agency, who asked not to be identified by name because he is not authorised to discuss strategy with the press. Based on clicks-throughs alone, he says, Facebook “doesn’t pay off.” His agency’s approach is to use the service as part of broader social media campaigns.
9.40am: One take on the big offering.
Wocka! Wocka! twitter.com/dmataconis/sta…
— Doug Mataconis (@dmataconis) May 18, 2012
9.39am: the scene at Facebook HQ in Menlo Park in the run-up to the IPO. the company is valued at $104 billion as shares go on sale to the public.
9.36am ET/2.36pm BST: the Guardian’s Dominic Rushe has been talking to David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect – the only book written so far with Facebook’s cooperation – and a man who has spent many many hours with mark Zuckerberg.
“His impact on the world will be as least as big as Bill Gates and probably already has been,” Kirkpatrick tells Rushe. “Like Gates I’m positive he is going to end up being one of the world’s great philanthropists. I believe he has a very strong social conscience.”
He says this will be a big day for Zuckerberg but that while the Facebook boss may party later, he’ll try to keep things as normal as possible once he has rung the bell.
Then the real work begins…
“I spoke to Peter Thiel [Silicon Valley investment legend and one of Facebook's early backers] and he said Facebook had this peculiar quality, it will either completely dominate or it will completely go away. I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon though.”
Fitzpatrick predicts that Zuckerberg could soon be the world’s richest man.
9.30am ET/2.30pm BST: mark Zuckerberg has just rung the bell opening the Nasdaq market. he did so from a stage at the company’s Menlo Park HQ. then he hugged COO Sheryl Sandberg. the stage is full of other FB execs, with a sea of employees all around. A boom camera is capturing the action in the cheering, waving crowd. Looks like Bonnaroo. “A Woodstock event,” someone on CNBC just called it.
9.28am ET/2.28pm BST: Hackathon Update. it turns out there was one Facebook face who declined to participate in last night’s ritual of camamaderie and computer fun. Zuckerberg apparently called it a night early in the evening, Josh Halliday reports. he went home to his girlfriend Cilla and their Hungarian sheepdog, Beast.
When you’re the boss you get to do that.
9.23am ET/2.23pm BST: CNBC, which is tracking the Facebook IPO, is reporting on the overnight “hackathon” at the company’s Menlo Park, California, campus. In the run-up to today’s big splash, employees spent the night at their place of work writing computer code, over-caffeinating and giving their eyes a little extra practice staring at computer screens. the event reflects the company’s youthful, creative, spontaneous, creative culture.
Employees ordered Chinese food and there was talk of them making a run to In-n-Out Burger, CNBC reports. how does the news change your bet on what Facebook stock will do today? Let us know in the comments.
9.13am ET/2.13pm BST: the delayed debut of Facebook stock this morning affords us time for a walk down memory lane… back to 2004, when FB chief mark Zuckerberg was still just a cocky college student bragging about his hacking exploits in instant messages to friends.
Those messages are now a matter of public record. The Guardian’s Josh Halliday writes:
Zuckerberg appears to confirm in one message that he secretly hacked into the website of the Harvard University newspaper, the Crimson, by guessing the emails and passwords of two people in the college database.
“So I want to read what they said about me before the article came out and after I complained,” he told a friend. “So I’m just like trying the email/passwords of everyone who put that they’re in the Crimson. I wonder if the school tracks stuff like that.”
In another message, Zuckerberg boasts about deactivating college students’ accounts on the internal Harvard social network, ConnectU. “I got bored so I started deactivating accounts on ConnectU haha,” the future cyber-grandee writes.
8.52am ET/1.52pm BST: Trading action on Facebook shares is not likely to commence until 10:30am ET at the earliest, as bankers work through the mechanics of the offer, market sources said.
8.30am ET/1.30pm BST: Mark Zuckerberg will ring the bell for the opening of the Nasdaq stock market at 9.30am as he kicks off a share sale that will value the company at $104bn.
We’ll be live blogging the day’s events here in new York, and you can see how the fortunes of Zuckerberg and the social network crew rise (or fall).
Not since Google’s initial public offering (IPO) has a share sale been as closely watched. It’s Super Bowl for social media: every commentator in the land has an opinion on whether the firm is really worth that sort of cash, and is lining up to share it.
At $104bn, Facebook is being valued at more than the combined value of Nike and Goldman Sachs. Last year Facebook had revenues of $3.7bn. Goldman’s were 10 times that.
But this is a company with massive potential. Facebook will have more than a billion people logging in to its service this year – that’s more than three times the populations of the US – and it hasn’t got started in China. nearly 400 million people log on six days a week. In the first three months of this year those people “liked” or commented on Facebook items 3.2bn times a day.
Google added a verb to the lexicon; Facebook redefined “friend” and “like”. now Zuckerberg has to find a way to make his social network live up to its massive promise.
8.30am ET/1.30pm BST: Mark Zuckerberg will ring the bell for the opening of the Nasdaq stock market at 9.30am as he kicks off a share sale that will value the company at $104bn.
We’ll be live blogging the day’s events here in new York, and you can see how the fortunes of Zuckerberg and the social network crew rise (or fall).
Not since Google’s initial public offering (IPO) has a share sale been as closely watched. It’s Super Bowl for social media: every commentator in the land has an opinion on whether the firm is really worth that sort of cash, and is lining up to share it.
At $104bn, Facebook is being valued at more than the combined value of Nike and Goldman Sachs. Last year Facebook had revenues of $3.7bn. Goldman’s were 10 times that.
But this is a company with massive potential. Facebook will have more than a billion people logging in to its service this year – that’s more than three times the populations of the US – and it hasn’t got started in China. nearly 400 million people log on six days a week. In the first three months of this year those people “liked” or commented on Facebook items 3.2bn times a day.
Google added a verb to the lexicon; Facebook redefined “friend” and “like”. now Zuckerberg has to find a way to make his social network live up to its massive promise.
Tom McCarthyDominic Rusheguardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. all rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Facebook IPO: social network makes stock market debut – live blog