Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
#1
The biggest website on the planet..ie Facebook.. launches itself onto the world stock markets today. The share price is placed at $38 per share. A hefty price for a single share, so the chances are the shares will just be bought by large organisations rather than individuals. A far cry from the days of Sid and the British Gas share sell off. If I'm remembering correctly those shares were just £1.50. Allsorts of lowly individuals like myself were offered these on a wide scale and yours truly took up the offer. I became a Sid.
But that was long ago and times change. These are more volatile days on the world markets.
After today Mark Zuckerberg who started the concept off while at Harvard, will became one of the richest men in the world. With shares at that price it means the company is worth $104Billion ( yes Billion) more than Ford or Disney, yet as far as I know it has never turned a profit. But investors beware... is this another dotcom bubble set to burst? At least Ford have something concrete..an actual product.
However it is all fascinating. Zuckerberg has struck a goldmine, to bring it all to fruition on such a scale needed bigtime investors and they will all benefit greatly today too. All will be rich...and Joe Public will continue to enjoy Facebook, up to 900 million users I believe.
I'm not one of them myself. A dinosaur alas...
Guest 663- Registered: 20 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,136
#2
Never use Facebook either so LOL!!! PaulB we are back in the dinosaur age together
but I have to say its all thats been talked about on the radio today,at 28 years old to be one richest men in the world must be no mean feat, and his investors will rub their hands together all the way to the bank.
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
#3
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#4
read a few reports on this and they varied from encouraging us to buy shares to others saying greek bonds were a better investment.
my gut feeling is that facebook has gone as far as it can and the bubble will burst.
we live in a fast moving world and new fads come in all the time destroying the previous ones.
Guest 705- Registered: 23 Sep 2010
- Posts: 661
#5
Exactly Howard- the inevitable fate which befalls an entity that doesn't actually produce anything!
Never give up...
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
#6
aha the demise of faceache,can you get tickets for it,and can i get a front row seat.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
#7
I do not advise on individual shares, that is the job of stockbrokers not IFAs. What I will say though, remember the dot.com crash - be careful about this one as, like Howard, I am not convinced of its long-term future, not as an investment at least.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
#8
Will be fascinating to watch this one. The shares started yesteday at $38 and rose with a flourish but speculators soon took their early profits and by the end of trading the shares were valued at just a tad over $38..back where they started. They are now worth $38 and a few cents.
The share price of $38 was very high to begin with, valueing the business in stratospheric terms...but a big but remains as to how well they will perform over the long term when we have a company that manufactures nothing at all. It is rather like investing in the prevailing mood, the mood of the moment.
It has emerged overnight that one of the biggest winners in the crazy prices is Bono, Irish rock geezer, he invested in Zuckerberg early on and now it seems he has an extra $1BILLION dollars in his bank account today. Yes thats right...a billion!!
The figures are crazy so one has to have a double blink to check that it really says a Billion! he now catapults himself into being the richest musician ever...at a stroke. Well there you are.
Yes harking back to the dotcom revolution and inevitable crash...I remember all too well...remember the mad scramble for lastminute.com shares, a fevered frenzy hit the markets, everybody wanted in...but today they are just another website among thousands and thousands of websites. I dont know if that particular website ever made any money, but the founders did at flotation.
Guest 744- Registered: 20 Mar 2012
- Posts: 412
#9
Brian
I signed up and then signed off faceache sharp quick. Every time I logged on there was a bunch of dodgy looking weirdos wanting to be my "friend". Apart from that it is very tedious reading about people's drinking habits and their every day tasks like, "I've just hung out the washing". Should be renamed "Bore Book". I understand one or two really big companies have already decided not to advertise on the site anymore.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
#10
A bit of further news on the Facebook flotation. Several experts said at the time that the share price was too high at flotation, the launch on the stockmarket made a lot of money for the few as mentioned in the posts above, but did it, or will it, make any money for the share investors. Many of them may have been small investors, although twas priced rather high for small investors, but many may have nevertheless done so through a sentimental attachment to facebook itself, wanting to be part owner as it were.
But since flotation the price is down 11%. So lets say small investors who invested say £100.. well that £100 is now worth £89 and you can extrapulate that upwards in multiples. £1000 is now worth £890. The bigger the investment the bigger the loss, so far.
One expert on the R4 this morning said "greed" paid a part in this flotation...it made lots of money for a few but what about those investors who coughed up, has their investment only got one way to go??
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
#11
Share investing is a long term prospect and should not be done in the hope of a quick buck. Those who invested are perfectly aware of this and they were also aware of the extreme levels of market volatility at the moment so the drop should not be an issue for them. They will only have lost money if they were to sell the shares now. That said, as I indicated before I am not convinced the business model is a good long term investment anyway, not that I advise on shares.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
#12
Oh I dont know though BarryW...lots of guys invest at the prospect of a quick buck. The day of the Facebook float the shares went up in value initially and the speculators cashed their chips in as it were within hours. I think if a person were investing in utilities such as at the time of the British Gas launch them maybe one took a long term view in that kind of case..lots of widows orphans and grannies bought them and held onto them..and probably still have 'em today...the ones that are still alive anyway !
It will be worth watching the facebook shares as we trundle along. To see if investing in internet stocks is a goer.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
#13
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
#14
PaulB - fools and their money are easily parted. Just because some may have done tried short term speculation it does not mean it is the right approach. If that was their game then they deserve their losses if they sold low and early that is.
Guest 668- Registered: 13 Apr 2008
- Posts: 91
#15
Unfortunately it will mean that regular users of FB will find their details/personal bits being traded as currency to appease the shareholders...
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#16
i thought that they were already doing it as they made many changes recently.
looks like this was all preplanned.
Guest 671- Registered: 4 May 2008
- Posts: 2,095
#17
Not bothered with shares and flotations etc but used properly FB is a great media.
We have just set up our Mill Hill & Betteshanger Heritage page anf its going great.
Try it out.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/368285533207526/"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"
Guest 703- Registered: 30 Jul 2010
- Posts: 2,096
#18
#15, Facebook is the biggest invasion of privacy on the internet, it invaded mine and I'm not even a member.
I had an email from them saying why not join facebook as these are people you might know, every one of them was someone I had emailed, maybe only once even, in the last year. Knowingly or not they had allowed facebook to search all their email contacts and it was then trawling these lists for new members.
A few years ago facebook was just a minnow in a sea dominated by Myspace, that's now almost unused in comparison and facebook shows the same signs of peaking and soon being past its best - hence the timing of its flotation?
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
#19
the owner of facebook and some of the banks who helped float faceache are being sued in a new york court.the reason isthat so called investors wernt told of the future slow up take in future buisness.so some are disgrunteld.
Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
#20
If your investing in this sh.. you have to much money.
