DISQUS

Haggie · 7 months ago

Is it possible that the employee buyback is to avoid triggering SEC reporting requirements?

Matt Marshall · 7 months ago

I'm told that's not what is driving this, since employees won't be selling all of their shares, and thus will remain shareholders after the transaction, just as before (and since there will be the same number of shareholders after this buyback, the company doesn't reduce its exposure to the SEC regulation). I'll double check this, in any case.

MrFrank · 7 months ago

The reward should come AFTER you're profitable, not before.

Matt Marshall · 7 months ago

Well, they're not selling shares to the public, they're selling to mainly their own investors -- so its not like this is some sort of effort to jam through an IPO on an unsuspecting pubic.

deancollins · 7 months ago

Matt,
thats not correct, emplyees have been selling their shares in open secondary markets - check out details here http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/fac...

cheers,
Dean

Matt Marshall · 7 months ago

Dean, I realize that. But these are two different groups. You're talking mainly about former employees. The program we're talking about here is different. It's an official fund raise so that Google can buy out its existing employees.

Ed Harris · 7 months ago

That's a great option for the employees. There is no guarantee that Facebook shares will continue to appreciate. Ask Lucent employees!

awilensky · 7 months ago

If Facebook were to disappear overnight, who would really be the poorer?

Geoff H · 7 months ago

Why all the hate? Ive met a lot of old friends on facebook, and it makes it easy to keep up with friends I dont have enough time to hang out with in person regularly or have moved far away.

Obviously, there are people who like Facebook.

awilensky · 7 months ago

What are you 12? How would your life or career be materially affected if there were no Facebook? We are all acting like this is a mission critical utility.

Peter Antypas · 7 months ago

How would your life or career be affected if there were no TV,sports,music,movies,outdoor activities, name-your-favorite-pastime? Certainly we don't "need" them, right?

awilensky · 7 months ago

I'm asking about facebook. It's gone, now what? How is the world or work changed?

I might say that losing a utility like Linkedin might have more real world impact than losing FB to its non-business model.

Curtis Earl · 7 months ago

your question is stupid. Even in the corporate world, most people have no idea what linkedin is. If that tree fell, no one would care. Myspace would have a greater effect. Facebook is huge for people without time. As a tech, I've spent a decade trying to convince people that it's easier to host your own blog than use blogspot. I've told them it's easier to build and server base back up system than to go without. etc on into infinity. people like easy and they like flashy. Facebook is dead simple to use.

Scott · 7 months ago

Linkedin isn't even in the same discussion here. The number of people who use it on a daily basis is a fraction compared to Facebook. I've made far more business connections and contacts through Facebook than I have through LI due to the sheer number of people who are on FB. In fact, I've sat here thinking for 5 minutes and can only come up with four people in my life who aren't on FB.

Furthermore, easily half of the number of friends/family I keep in regular contact with is via Facebook. Phone calls are too time consuming, email can be a chore, but Facebook is the perfect equilibrium. It may not be a mission critical utility, but it sure as heck makes this 28-year-olds life much more connected and easier.

Murtaza Mohammad · 7 months ago

@MrFrank, very good point. I second that!

Gadget Sleuth · 7 months ago

MrFrank: Absolutely! Sounds like a few of those workers are getting restless or feeling undervalued.

MarshallGreenAZ · 7 months ago

When will Facebook be profitable?

DrBlockbuster · 7 months ago

Yesch, methinks employees are getting restless too! Selling part of their shareholding for what looks like $9 a share will be a great incentive to stay and a major shot in the arm.

There's certainly a drive on to source new revenue streams too, as groups are prompted for promotion and 200 million users can't be ignored as a revenue stream. :wink:

The explosive growth in users and photo sharing will have bumped up core costs and one wonders if revenues are moving ahead at the same rate? Many users are reported to be fragmenting their network time, onto Twitter in particular, and Facebook needs to stimulate existing user interest to meet these new challenges.

Dr Blockbuster

Glenn Walker · 7 months ago

> DrBlockbuster - Many users are reported to be fragmenting their network time, onto Twitter in particular,

this is totally true, i have been doing the exactly that and haven't thought about it for a second until you said that.

Mkcoy · 7 months ago

Interesting. I wonder, through all of this though. Will we have be able to go on Facebook without having ads in the side-bar?? I doubt it!!!

Mihua · 7 months ago

good point.

xprincessxjulzx · 7 months ago

Mkcoy--I currently use greasemonkey in firefox to get rid of those facebook ads. That is, for the average 30 min (that's a very liberal estimate) a week I spend on facebook nowadays.

Dan · 7 months ago

I think the most interesting question is what is the implied valuation of the company at $10 per share? Matt - do you know this or did I miss it somewhere in the article? Otherwise, great scoop. Thanks.

member · 7 months ago

yes...this is 2x the 409a valuation and thus 2x what private investors have been willing to pay in the past year (since the market fall). is this only current employees, what are the catches to accepting this deal....the devils IS in the details

Matt Marshall · 7 months ago

Dan, I didn't get that far. Will update, if I get more. But keep in mind that during the last round, the common was priced at about $10, and the preferred was priced at $40. I'll try to do some math when I get home, based on what we know about the number of shares outstanding.

chleoku · 7 months ago

If facebook did the virtual network like QQ (Tencent) and monetize on virtual goods rather than advertising, they might have been better in terms of profitability:

http://www.wealthalchemist.com/Blog/2009/04/vir...

johnny hotcakes · 7 months ago

this article makes no sense to me. If FB is raising money to buy employees shares, then there's no 3rd party involved....if a 3rd party is interesting in buying FB shares as $10/per, then great, but FB is just acting as the broker. I don't believe this is a "raise" at all - it's just that FB has finally hooked up employees with a buyer....anyone disagree?

Will · 7 months ago

I would speculate that the money being raised is for Servers. The more content users place online, the more users will spend time online, uploading, sharing and downloading each others content. This just allows for more time spent being exposed to ads.

When an employee elects to cash in a stock option, aren't they allowed to purchase the stock for say $2, even though it is selling on the open market for $10. Then the employee still needs to sell this on the open market for $10? Isn't this stock already accounted for on the books as stock that is out there to be purchased and therefore already factored into earnings per share and such?

Mr Lake County · 7 months ago

I think facebook will come and go, just like myspace.

David Lee Laskiewicz · 7 months ago

Facebook is worth alot of Money! I find it strange that there is no simplistic way to reach management when fraud is taking place.I was subjected to fraud yesterday and spent two hours trying to find a Management Site to report the sham. No success!!! No Management Fraud Site , No Phone # , No E Mail Site, I suppose The Better Business Bureau , & The Attorney Generals Office , is the only recourse.Facebook obviously approves of fraud if they have no means to report it to them.

Jay · 7 months ago

What are you babbling about?

arvind s grover · 7 months ago

I don't necessarily think the main purpose to buy back stock is to get employees extra compensation, although it is a nice side-benefit; I think investors are giving money to Facebook to buy back stock so that when the company either is sold, or goes public, their investment would explode, much more than the $1/$10 the employees are receiving. It's the only reason people would invest additionally, if they expected an even bigger payback. It's not a good deed, but a good business decision.

Matt Marshall · 7 months ago

Don't think so. There's probably going to be healthy lockup for most insiders either way.

JOhn Davis · 7 months ago

You have to admit the dude raises some very good ideas!

RT
www.whos-watching.net.tc

truth · 7 months ago

I hate facebook and the people on facebook. Gosh, get a real life and do something for real already. It's a f*cking waste of time. Twitter is sh*t too. Social my *ss. They'll all be vague memory in 5 years.

durko · 7 months ago

Great, don't use it...I am sure nobody would care...

LEADSExplorer · 7 months ago

Take the money and run.

The future of FaceBook is as uncertain as the hype of MySppace 2-3 years ago and now Twitter.
Todays heroes are tomorrows losers.

facebook vet · 7 months ago

Pretty ridiculous they haven't given out an IPO yet. The path that the website is on, they will probably crash and burn in the next few years from utter mismanagement and without capital investment from the public. I cut myself off from FB after having it for 5 years because of all of the changes they've made to the site (making it more like twitter, not taking user privacy anywhere nearly as seriously as they should) not to mention their entire business model since about 2006 (?) has been predicated on giving every moron, high schooler, christian taliban soccer mom, chav wanker and eastern european hacker on the face of the planet a page, rather than limiting it to college students and graduates. Then they have the nerve to interfere with business being conducted on the site, not to mention they will ban anything with half a nipple to please the moral puritans on the site, but will simultaneously let intolerant hate groups congregate on their pages.

What a damn shame.

DC · 7 months ago

I don't know what the founder is thinking. If he's as smart as he claims, he'd sell this pig in a heartbeat. You can live a nice life off of a couple of billion, kid. The value of FB will continue to go down, after reaching a "peak" valuation last year. FB is just one in a lonnnnng line of internet fads. MySpace had the same problem. Now it's on a downward slide. Something more attractive will come along and people will begin leaving FB. Hell, the most recent re-design is AWFUL and I'm noticing a large number of my friends are no longer active on the site.

michael krijnen · 7 months ago

This is what the bloggers on Huffington had to say about Facebook


For me, social networking has so many positive benefits that I scarcely know how to address the naysayers. First, I get together in person with people much more often than before, because it doesn"t feel like I"m starting from square one anymore. I can"t tell you how awkward I felt in the past to see someone I hadn"t seen in awhile and have them say "So, what have you been up to?" UGH. But social networks give what Clive Thompson calls "ambient awareness", the chance to have some sense of peoples lives so that when you get together IRL you can immediately have deeper, more meaningful conversations. Another benefit is connecting with people worldwide. Yes, I met my friend Anastasia from Turkey or Karvya in Mexico through sound bytes on Twitter, but we now have discussions over the role of women in Turkish society or how to juggle work and kids. And I talk to my friend Einar, in Iceland, constantly over social networks, after a 10-year hiatus when email just didn"t cut it. Finally, here's what I see all the time in social networks that I couldn"t see before -- I see how people in my networks treat other people. I learn more about their values, what"s important to them, their kindness and generosity than I ever could have hoped to if I only saw them in "real" life. To imply that any of the connections I have over social networks aren"t "meaningful" flabbergasts me.




Facebook doesn't replace real world interaction for most people. There are at least four ways that it can actually enhance real world interaction:

1. Getting reacquainted with an old friend or finding a new friend in an old acquaintance: I've had both experiences several times. For example, a guy I went to high school with ran in very different circles from mine back then and we barely knew each other, but since connecting on Facebook we found we share a similar sense of humor, similar interests, and a similar worldview, and we've spent time hanging out IRL that never would have happened otherwise.

2. Maintaining contact info: There are only so many people I am close enough with to maintain phone numbers and email addresses as people move and whatnot. For the rest, Facebook dramatically increases the chances that I'll seek out someone outside of that tighter circle of friends and family for a real world social visit, especially if some time has passed

Brooks Boliek · 7 months ago

The whole anti-Facebook thing is kind of silly. If you don't like it, or like something else don't use it. It may go away at some point, maybe in the near future, but it serves a need now. I do plenty of stuff outside FB, but it's a great way to communicate with people I don't see normally. My nephew in Alabama and I had a great debate over the whole "green" thing. I live in Maryland, and don't get down there much anymore. That debate never would have happened without FD. I feel a connection to him I never had.