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Here, you’ll find award-winning journalism not driven by commercial influences – a news organization that takes seriously its mission to uplift the world by seeking solutions and finding reasons for credible hope.
Facebook IPO: five things to know before buying the stock
About 1 in 8 people on the planet have a Facebook account. Now, with the arrival of a public stock offering, all those people have a chance to be part owners of this social hub.
Can you really buy this stock? Should you?
Here's a glimpse inside the most publicized initial stock offering in years, including some of the things you should be aware of before deciding to buy shares.
Lots of people want to buy this stock when trading starts this week, for a simple reason: Facebook is one of the most visible companies in the world, where Internet technology meets everyday activities like chatting and sharing photos with friends. Now, for the first time, its shares will be traded on public exchanges – offering the chance for people on the outside to own a stake in the company's rapid growth and rich potential.
This won't be the largest initial public offering (IPO) ever, but it is expected to be the largest ever for an Internet company – raising some $12 billion for the firm and its early investors. When Google went public with similar fanfare in 2004, it raised about $1.67 billion.
At the expected offer price between $34 and $38 per share, the Facebook IPO will imply a market value for the whole company close to $100 billion. (That's because much of the stock held by founders and early investors is not being sold to the public.)
But if Facebook will instantly rank among the stock market's largest high-tech companies, that doesn't mean it's automatically a good buy. In fact, amid all the excitement and anticipation, it could be a money loser for incoming investors.
So do some hard thinking before placing a "buy" order. It may be that your Facebook account is a better deal ("It's free and always will be," the firm says).
The five issues covered here will help you think through this investment decision.
Jeff Chiu/AP
A worker inside the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Facebook is headed for what may be the biggest IPO in history.
1.
The insiders are the big winners
Jeff Chiu/AP
A worker inside the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Facebook is headed for what may be the biggest IPO in history.
By Mark TrumbullStaff writer
Remember that when a hot new investment comes to market, the small investor stands last in line. First served by the IPO will be the firm's founders and other investors who took early risks during the start-up phase. They already have a big equity stake in the firm, and they often see the value of their holdings surge as the IPO occurs.
Next at the trough will be financial firms and privileged investors. They can get in at that "offer price" in the neighborhood of $36 per share.
Last, and least, is everyone else.
When trading in Facebook starts on the Nasdaq market under the ticker symbol "FB," financial pros expect the shares to open significantly higher than the official offer price. If that's the case, you'll need to decide whether that higher price feels worth it.
About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:
“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”
If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.
But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.
The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.
We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”
If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.
Monitor journalism changes lives because we open that too-small box that most people think they live in. We believe news can and should expand a sense of identity and possibility beyond narrow conventional expectations.
