Facebook IPO: Here is the best of the web

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Feeling overwhelmed with all the Facebook chatter? Is all this talk of the IPO making you yearn for the weekend already? Well, we are going to make life a little easier for you and find you best stuff for you to read from all around the social web. Keep checking back often – and remember, the newest links are at the top. And if you find something great that we missed, post it in the comments.

8:40: A thought from early Facebook staffer and Benchmark Capital partner Matt Cohler:

8:35: According to Reuters, Facebook traded a mind-boggling 82 million shares in the first 30 seconds on Nasdaq:

8:32: Finally, Facebook starts trading — up a respectable 13 percent in the opening to $ 42, and cheers at CNBC according to Eric Jackson:

8:29: While the Nasdaq tries to cope with a tsunami of demand for Facebook shares, there’s plenty of time for more witticisms, like this one from humorist Steve Murray:

8:22: Nasdaq officials have said they were forced to delay Facebook’s opening further for technical reasons, and Barron’s columnist Steve Sears says someone must have underestimated the demand:

8:18: So where is Facebook? Nasdaq says it is experiencing a delay, likely due to enormous demand according to Bloomberg:

8:15: A thought from Marketplace Wall Street reporter Heidi Moore:

8:13: Some frustration on the part of financial commentators like the CBC’s Amanda Lang as Facebook is still delayed:

8:11: While we wait for the stock to actually start trading, a thought from Yieldbot founder Jonathan Mendez:

8:05: Why didn’t Facebook stock begin trading when the Nasdaq exchange first opened at 9 am Eastern? Because that’s just how the Nasdaq works, that’s why:

“It’s not a delay or a problem, just a matter of style,” said a source familiar with Nasdaq’s process. “We want to have an IPO stand alone at its own special time.”

8:04: AOL founder Steve Case thinks back to the day when his company went public at a much smaller valuation:

8:01: Reuters says Facebook trading has been delayed until 11:05 Eastern, so day-traders can stand down for another few minutes.

7:57: A wry observation from Twitter chairman and Square CEO Jack Dorsey:

7:54: With Facebook stock set to begin official trading within minutes, here’s an official photo of the Nasdaq bell-ringing ceremony provided by Facebook:

7:51: In the list of those who have become extremely wealthy as a result of the Facebook IPO you will find the name of one Paul Hewson — otherwise known as U2 front-man Bono, who New Music Express says will officially become the richest musician in the world, eclipsing Paul McCartney:

The U2 singer owns 2.3 per cent of the shares in Facebook through his private equity firm, Elevation Partners, which they bought for $ 90 million (£57 million) in 2009

Also, CNBC notes that much of musician Kenny G.’s net worth comes from a seed investment he made in Starbucks (via Staci Kramer).

7:42: True to Facebook’s hacker culture, a programmer at the giant social network hacked the Nasdaq opening bell button (with the exchange’s permission) to automatically post a status update to Mark Zuckerberg’s page — using the engineer’s headphones:

7:36: A photo posted on Facebook by mobile product manager Erick Tseng, with the caption: “It’s official! Exciting day! Now some sleep, then back to work!”

7:31: Wade Roush at Xconomy asks the new Facebook millionaires and billionaires to spend some of their time and resources after the IPO on some really world-changing problems instead of just new Ferraris:

I’m not saying that ex-Facebookers should abandon their training in business or computer science and become climatologists, roboticists, entomologists, or oceanographers. But they can certainly take the lessons they’ve learned about building scalable systems and harnessing natural human behaviors and apply them to problems outside social networking.

7:28: According to CNBC, retail interest in the Facebook IPO — that is, interest expressed by non-professional traders — is the highest ever for an initial offering:

7:24: Meanwhile, New York Times writer Nick Bilton asks us to spare a thought for two of the people who probably feel the most left out of the Facebook hype:

7:22: Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, warns anyone thinking of buying Silicon Valley real estate about the spinoff effects of the world’s largest technology IPO:

7:17: The Boston Globe points out that, in contrast to how both Google and Netscape were treated by the universities where they were created, Harvard made the smart move by not asserting any rights over Facebook despite the fact that Mark Zuckerberg developed it while he was a student there:

Harvard’s minor role in Facebook’s history has attracted a different reaction: a star-studded Hollywood blockbuster, a reinvigorated reputation as a dream school for entrepreneurial teens, and warm feelings among millionaire alumni who may become large donors. By contrast, few know that modern web browsing was born at the University of Illinois, and Netscape’s embittered founders vowed never to give another dime to their alma mater-turned-adversary.

Hat tip to Techdirt for spotting that one.

7:14: A great photo from New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter, posted on Instagram just after the ringing of the trading bell:

7:11: Comedian Andy Borowitz has been firing off one-liners about the Facebook IPO since Thursday, including this gem:

7:09: Although Mark Zuckerberg has already run the ceremonial opening bell at the Nasdaq exchange, actual trading of the stock won’t begin until 11:00 a.m. Eastern — so you can stop holding your finger over the “buy” button on your Bloomberg terminal now.

7:01: Apparently not everyone is aware of what a momentous day this is, according to this tweet from Eric Jackson:

6:57: There have been lots of great Twitter responses to the Facebook IPO, but one of the best was from blogger Ed Hunsinger, or @edrabbit:

6:52: Those newly-minted Facebook millionaires had better restrain themselves, according to a New York Times story on the nouveau tech rich:

“The message here is, ‘Keep shipping product,’ ” said a Facebook executive who requested anonymity while discussing internal matters. “If someone buys a fancy car and posts a picture of it, they get ridiculed and berated.”

6:51: Remember when everyone was saying they were quitting Facebook? MG Siegler does:

6:46: A historic moment is recorded — where else — as a Facebook status update:

6:43: Looks like someone in the TV caption-writing game needs a spelling lesson:

6:40: Ryan Holiday at Forbes says there’s one reason why the media loves writing about companies in their pre-IPO period — because they can say whatever they want and the company can’t comment:

It’s not just about capturing a popular SEO-term. The real reason is much more insidious. It all comes down to exploiting a single fact: the reporter has complete freedom to write the “facts” however they want while the company is gagged by the SEC’s quiet period regulations.

6:38: Here’s a shot of Mark Zuckerberg ringing the opening bell:

6:35: It seems as though everyone is excited about the potential of buying Facebook stock, based on this tweet:

06:23: Watch Zuck ring the bell live here in a few minutes.

06.10: The Atlantic says Facebook is a weapon of mass distraction.

“Facebook’s greatest asset is its immense capacity to distract us. The best social media companies manage to get 10% of their users to come back each day, according Foursquare/Tumblr/Twitter/Zynga investor Fred Wilson. Ten percent isn’t cool, Facebook contends. You know what’s cool? Fifty percent.”

06.01: Eduardo Saverin, the “Brazilian” on the eve of the IPO on his Facebook page:

On the eve of the Facebook public float, 8 plus year 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.

05.56: The New York Times: General Mark Zuckerberg

“We heard from people close to Mr. Zuckerberg that part of his leadership skills can be attributed to his penchant for playing games that involve conquering virtual worlds. A favorite video game of his as a boy was ‘Civilization’, the object of which is to ‘build an empire to stand the test of time,’ a friend of Mr. Zuckerberg’s told The New York Times. The person added that ‘Civilization’ was the ‘training wheels for starting Facebook.’”

I clearly should stop wasting my time on Tetris -Om

00.01: Want to predict the closing price of Facebook IPO on first day of trading? Play this game -facebookipodatclosingprice.com! I am betting it ends up in the $ 60-$ 75 range. – Om

One of the cool things about that closing-price prediction site is that creator James Proud set it up after angel investor Chris Sacca asked for just such a thing in this tweet. – Mathew

00.00: CNBC: India Set to Overtake US as Facebook’s Largest Market

“India is set to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest Facebook market by number of users as early as 2015, according to social media analysts, driven by growing internet penetration and high rates of growth in mobile connections. As Facebook’s third largest market, India is home to over 45 million users, behind Brazil and the United States with 47 and 157 million users, respectively, according to the latest data from Facebook’s advertising platform.”

This is not necessarily a good thing. It is hard to monetize the overseas traffic and many Internet companies have learned this the hard way. – Om


GigaOM

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