February 2, 2012 SouthAmerica: The article said Facebook is supposed to have 845 million users â I have 3 of these accounts myself, but I use only one on a regular basis. I am sure that there are a ton of people with multiple Facebook accounts. The article also said: âThe company generates about $4.39 in revenue per user. "That is a surprisingly low number," said University of Notre Dame finance professor Tim Loughran, who studies IPOs. Google's annual revenue of nearly $38 billion works out to more than $30 per user of its services.â The multiple accounts explain part of the story why revenue per user is so low when compared with Google. In comparison I have only one Google account. The people who didn't convert their FB account to a timeline format, I believe Facebook is going to force people to do it automatically on February 16, 2012 accordingly to the discussion about this subject among the users. Most of the discussion is about how the people don't like Facebook's new timeline format, but FB doesn't give a choice to the user to keep the current format as it is. The people like the current format much better than the new timeline format. If people are not happy with the new look and posting environment at Facebook, then people can go somewhere else and use other services around the web and waste less time on Facebook. I am sure that a lot people will move to some new service anyway, as soon they hear that there is something new and really cool on the web. There are young people thinking about new innovation regarding the web all the time, and now that more and more people from around the world are connected to the web â if anything that probably will speed up innovation and new clever ways of doing things on the web. And today any innovation and web site breakthrough can be translated into multiple languages almost overnight thanks to Google translate. ***** Facebook surrenders its privacy in IPO documents â February 2, 2012 By Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer | Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Facebook is baring its business soul. The unveiling came late Wednesday when the company that depends on people to share their lives online filed its plans to raise $5 billion in an initial public offering of stock. It's a revelatory moment that prospective investors, curious competitors and nosy reporters have been awaiting for two years. During that time, Facebook established itself as a communications hub and emerged as a threat to the Internet's most powerful company, Google Inc. As with almost anything crafted by a bunch of lawyers and bankers, the 197-page prospectus that Facebook filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is filled with boilerplate legalese and mind-numbing numbers. But there were some juicy details in there, too. Above all, the documents confirmed what everyone had been hearing: Facebook is very profitable and getting stronger. The company Mark Zuckerberg started with some friends in 2004 has seen its annual revenue soar from $777 million in 2009 to $3.7 billion last year. Facebook's earnings have grown at a similar rate too, ballooning from $122 million in 2009 to $668 million last year. Facebook ended 2011 with $3.9 billion in cash. That's a relatively small amount compared to the nearly $45 billion that Google has in the bank. Facebook's prosperity has been fueled by a steady expansion of its audience, making its website a more attractive marketing vehicle for ads, which account for most of the company's revenue. Facebook ended last year with 845 million users, up 39 percent from 608 million at the end of 2010. Those users share their interests and preferences prodigiously. Facebook recorded a daily average of 2.7 billion "likes" and comments during the final three months of last year. Facebook has become so addictive that more than half its audience â 483 million users â log in every day. Facebook's revenue total disappointed some people who pored through the documents. One reason: The company generates about $4.39 in revenue per user. "That is a surprisingly low number," said University of Notre Dame finance professor Tim Loughran, who studies IPOs. Google's annual revenue of nearly $38 billion works out to more than $30 per user of its services. "Facebook needs to find more ways to get revenue from their users," Loughran said. Facebook listed its most promising expansion opportunities as Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, Russia and South Korea. The company, based in Menlo Park, Calif., eventually hopes to make its service available in China if it can navigate rules requiring online content to be censored if the Chinese government considers it to be objectionable or obscene. The IPO filing gives some clue when Facebook is likely to surpass 1 billion users. If it can add users at roughly the same pace as last year, Facebook should surpass the 1 billion mark this summer. As it is, Facebook already generates 44 percent of its revenue outside the U.S. The company is also developing other sources of revenue beyond online advertising faster than Google. Advertising accounted for 85 percent of Facebook's revenue last year. It made up 96 percent of Google's. Facebook's other revenue sources include the 30 percent cut of sales it takes from game makers and other external applications companies that sell things on its website. The big question is whether Facebook's numbers are impressive enough to fetch the lofty IPO price. It's still too early in the process for Facebook to reveal how much it intends to ask for its shares, but Wednesday's filing provides some clues. Facebook valued its Class B common stock at $29.73 at the end of December, down slightly from appraisals of $30.07 in June and September. If this unfolds like most hot IPOs, Facebook will probably try to sell its shares at a premium. That could mean an IPO price in the $35 to $40 range. Investor demand, though, ultimately will dictate the pricing. Facebook still hasn't listed how many outstanding shares it has, but the documents make it possible to make a rough estimate of the company's market value at the end of last year. Financial notes in the filing show Facebook calculated it had about 2.9 billion fully diluted shares at the end of December. That works out to a market value of about $86 billion, based on Facebook's $29.73-per-share self-appraisal. At that price, the nearly 534 million shares that the 27-year-old Zuckerberg owns are worth about $16 billion. The filing indicates Zuckerberg will sell an unspecified number of shares in the IPO to cover a tax bill for exercising a stock option to buy 120 million shares. Zuckerberg has been collecting a $500,000 salary but that will fall to one dollar next year at his own request, according to the filing. Other big winners in the IPO include: Facebook co-founder and old Zuckerberg friend, Dustin Moskovitz, who owns nearly 134 million shares; venture capital firm Accel Partners, which owns 201 million shares; Russian investor DST Global Ltd., which owns 131 million shares; and former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel, who owns nearly 45 million shares. Hundreds of other Facebook employees could become millionaires because they receive stock as part of their compensation. Facebook has about 3,200 employees now, nearly 2,000 more than it did two years ago. Facebook also shared some of its biggest worries in the filing. Among other things, it cited Google's ability to use its dominance in Internet search to promote its Google Plus social network. Facebook also frets the possibility that regulators in Europe and the U.S. may impose tougher privacy rules that would make it more difficult for the company to stockpile information about its users. Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebook-surrenders-privacy-ipo-documents-073351328.html ***** Facebook - SEC filings: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) â Facebook IPO Facebook Inc CIK#: 0001326801 (see all company filings) http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001326801&owner=include&count=40 *** REGISTRATION STATEMENT ON FORM S-1 http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000119312512034517/d287954ds1.htm .
February 2, 2012 SouthAmerica: The source of this information is above Form S-1 Accordingly with the above filing regarding the entities affiliated with Goldman Sachs*(19) - Shares Beneficially Owned Prior to this Offering = 65,947,241 shares or about 56.3 % of Class A common stock. Note*: (19) Consists of (I) 14,214,807 shares of Class A common stock held of record by The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.; (ii) 2,598,652 shares of Class A common stock held of record by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners Master Fund, L.P.; (iii)1,010,587 shares of Class A common stock held of record by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners Private Opportunities Holdings, L.P.; and (iv) 48,123,195 shares of Class A common stock held of record by FBDC Investors Offshore Holdings, L.P. Affiliates of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. are the general partner, managing general partner or investment manager of each of Goldman Sachs Investment Partners Master Fund, L.P., Goldman Sachs Investment Partners Private Opportunities Holdings, L.P., and FBDC Investors Offshore Holdings, L.P., and each of these funds shares voting and investment power with certain of its respective affiliates. The address of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Goldman Sachs Investment Partners Master Fund, L.P., Goldman Sachs Investment Partners Private Opportunities Holdings, L.P., and FBDC Investors Offshore Holdings, L.P. is 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282. *** Common Stock Dividend Rights Subject to preferences that may apply to shares of preferred stock outstanding at the time, the holders of outstanding shares of our common stock are entitled to receive dividends out of funds legally available if our board of directors, in its discretion, determines to issue dividends and only then at the times and in the amounts that our board of directors may determine. See âDividend Policyâ for more information. Voting Rights The holders of our Class_B common stock are entitled to ten votes per share, and holders of our Class_A common stock are entitled to one vote per share. The holders of our Class_A common stock and Class B common stock vote together as a single class, unless otherwise required by law. Delaware law could require either holders of our Class_A common stock or our Class_B common stock to vote separately as a single class in the following circumstances: _ ⢠_ if we were to seek to amend our certificate of incorporation to increase the authorized number of shares of a class of stock, or to increase or decrease the par value of a class of stock, then that class would be required to vote separately to approve the proposed amendment; and _ _ ⢠_ if we were to seek to amend our certificate of incorporation in a manner that alters or changes the powers, preferences or special rights of a class of stock in a manner that affected its holders adversely, then that class would be required to vote separately to approve the proposed amendment. Stockholders do not have the ability to cumulate votes for the election of directors. Our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws that will be in effect at the closing of our initial public offering will provide for a classified board of directors consisting of three classes of approximately equal size, each serving staggered three-year terms, when the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock represent less than a majority of the combined voting power of common stock. Our directors will be assigned by the then-current board of directors to a class when the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock represent less than a majority of the combined voting power of common stock. .
all i care is US economy just got a boost from facebook IPO... in Cali there will be 1000 more millionaires after FB ipo....
February 2, 2012 SouthAmerica: It is insane for the market to give a valuation of US$ 75 to US$ 100 billion market cap for the Facebook stock. That kind of valuation reminds me of Yahoo trading at US$ 434 on December 31, 1999. Reality check: Yahoo http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=YHOO Anyway.... Facebook's IPO Will Be Way Overvalued â February 1, 2012 <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CdNHWYUm7ZU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> At its anticipated IPO later this year, Facebook will be three times more expensive than Google GOOG +0.21% was at its IPO â and nearly 40 times more expensive than the average large IPO of the last four decades. Mark Hulbert Discusses on The Markets Hub.
February 2, 2012 SouthAmerica: Here is what is in the pipeline on the internet today... Roger McNamee: Six ways to save the internet â November 2011 <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/aR6jLD1USW0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Roger McNamee is a co-founder of Elevation Partners, an investment partnership focused on the intersection of media and entertainment content and consumer technology. Roger performs 100 shows a year in the band Moonalice, where he plays bass and guitar. Moonalice pioneered the use of social media in music, inventing such applications as Twittercast concerts, Moonalice radio on Twitter, live Mooncast (video) concerts, the Couch Tour. Moonalice's single, "It's 4:20 Somewhere" has been downloaded more than 845,000 times. Roger is the author of The New Normal and The Moonalice Legend: Posters and Words. Roger serves on board of directors of Wordnik and Move. In philanthropy, he serves on the boards of directors of National Geographic Ventures, the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame Museum, and the Rex Foundation. Roger holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. This TEDxSantaCruz talk is part of over 2 dozen surrounding our theme of "Engage!" This inaugural TEDxSantaCruz event was held June 11, 2011 at the Cabrillo College Music Recital Hall in Aptos, CA (Santa Cruz County). .
February 2, 2012 SouthAmerica: Here is another example of what is powering the future of the internet today... November 7, 2011 TEDxManhattanBeach - Thomas Suarez - iPhone Application Developer... and 6th Grader <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ehDAP1OQ9Zw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Thomas Suarez is a 6th grade student at a middle school in the South Bay of Los Angeles. When Apple released the Software Development Kit (SDK), he began to create and sell his own applications. "My parents, my friends and even the people at the Apple store all supported me," he says, "and Steve Jobs inspired me". Thomas points out that it's hard to learn how to make an app. "For soccer you could go to a soccer team ... but what if you want to make an app?" He's started a club for fellow students at school, where he shares his knowledge of programming. Thomas articulates his vision that students are a valuable new technology resource to teachers, and should be empowered to offer assistance in developing the technology curriculum and also assist in delivering the lessons. Thomas has been fascinated by computers and technology since before kindergarten. Recently, he's been focused on the development of applications for the iPhone, and has established his own company, CarrotCorp http://www.carrotcorp.com/. His most successful application is one he terms "an anti-Justin-Bieber game" called "Bustin Jieber". .
current odds Paddy Power is providing for Facebook's IPO: $25-$34.99: 7/2 $45-$54.99: 9/4 $55-$64.99: 7/1 Over $65: 9/2
February 8, 2012 SouthAmerica: I have 3 Facebook accounts myself, and yesterday a friend of mine told me that he has 4 Facebook accounts that he uses for different purposes. CrossTalk: FaceBook / CheckBook â February 8, 2012 <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4xlikbYdu1k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> .
April 12, 2012 SouthAmerica: Facebook is supposed to have its IPO in May 2012 â But...... Fecebook is already becoming very fast obsolete, even before Facebook has its IPO in May of 2012. The members of Facebook had a wall with all your information on that place. It was a simple and straightforward system. Many companies don't know when they got things right, and that it doesn't need further meddling to fix the system. This is the case with Facebook today; the Facebook members had their personal wall with all the necessary information, it was a simple and straightforward system, and now they are forcing all Facebook accounts into a new timeline system â a very cluttered system. The best analogy I can come up with to compare with Facebook is when Coca Cola came up with on April 23, 1985, amid much publicity, attempted to change the formula of the drink with "New Coke". But Coca-Cola management was unprepared for the public's reaction regarding the old drink, leading to a major backlash. The company gave in to protests and returned to a variation of the old formula, under the name Coca-Cola âClassicâ on July 10, 1985. Facebook is forcing "New Coke" or âTimelineâ on its members when the FB members want âCoca-Cola Classicâ or the old Facebook wall a simple and straightforward system. Today my Facebook wall tuned into âTimelineâ automatically, and I can't get my old Facebook wall back. Here is what says at the top of my Facebook wall: Welcome to Your Timeline â Preview Right now, only you can see your timeline. This gives you a chance to: 1. Review what's on your timeline now, and add or hide whatever you want. 2. Click Publish Now or wait until your timeline goes live on April 19, 2012. Timeline: A New Kind of Profile ***** My first reaction to the new âTimelineâ FB page was to remove various items from my page. But the Facebook system it does not allow me to remove the apps and games from my FB page. In a Nutshell: Basically, Facebook has already started its process of fast obsolescence. .