Just after the markets closed on its first day of public trading, Facebook amended its S-1 with a complete prospectus detailing how much stock each underwriter got to sell. Morgan Stanley, the lead-left bank, received 162.1 million shares ($6.15 billion worth) followed by J.P. Morgan with 84.8 million ($3.22 billion), and Goldman Sachs pulled down 63.1 million shares ($2.4 billion).
E*Trade and Itaú got the short end of the stick, receiving just $80 million in stock. That’s less than any of the other underwriters despite being listed in the middle of the pack in the previous versions of the prospectus. But none of the banks made too much on the Facebook stock. FB shares closed just $0.23 above its IPO price this morning. That means Facebook maximized the amount it raised in the offering, but its underwriters didn’t receive the massive cash windfall many expected.
While Mark Zuckerberg rang in Facebook’s first day as a publicly traded company back in Silicon Valley, TechCrunch TV was in New York City to report on the scene from the NASDAQ stock market’s Marketsite building in Times Square. The opening bell and initial trades were a bit anti-climactic in person, as we’ve written — NASDAQ is a digital exchange after all, so there’s not too much to see visually.
But it was a great opportunity to check out the NASDAQ “floor” in person, and talk all things Facebook with David Kirkpatrick, the NYC-based founder of Techonomy, Fortune Magazine alum, and best-selling author of the book “The Facebook Effect — The Inside Story Of The Company That Is Connecting The World.”
You can watch our whole chat with Kirkpatrick at the NASDAQ Marketsite in the video embedded above, which I’d recommend because he gives a pretty compelling interview. Below I’ve included a few of his insights, just to whet your appetite (and perhaps inspire you to endure all 30 seconds of that pre-roll video ad):
Why it seems like everyone has come down with Facebook IPO fever:
“People are realizing the extent to which technology is changing everything in modern society, and Facebook is kind of the most prominent symbol of that. I think that’s one of the reasons why this is so obsessively watched.”
A chicken in every pot, a Facebook stock in every portfolio? It could happen:
“There may be a surprising number of new investors who buy shares in Facebook and were not stock investors previously. Whether that might make them more willing to buy other kinds of stocks, I don’t know. Frankly I doubt it. But I think that a lot of ordinary people who are likely to buy Facebook stock are people who are going to do it because they love Facebook so much. And they’re not just Americans, they’re people all over the world.
…The thing about Facebook is it has more passionate users than any product I’ve ever heard of. And that is an odd thing for a public company, and it could mean it’s a very widely held stock.”
Why Zuck stayed home in California:
“I think it was in order to symbolically say, things aren’t going to be that different we’re going to stick to our knitting. That’s why they had a hackathon last night. It was very symbolically chosen… it’s the same thing as wearing the hoodie to the investor presentation.”
How Facebook’s IPO could finally make jeans and hoodies acceptable in business, once and for all:
“I think business in general is stuffy, and slow-moving, and needs a jolt of Red Bull, really. I don’t know why businesspeople always have to wear suits — it’s stupid, it’s idiotic, it doesn’t even look good, and it’s not very contemporary.
…If Facebook continues to retain this degree of prominence in the market economy, I think it will begin to have an influence that the CEO of that company doesn’t wear a suit.”
GameStop is hurting. Same store sales fell 5%-11% and revenue was down 17% to $2 billion. Profit fell to $72.5 million. Arguably, those are still huge numbers and presumably a new console refresh should push the company out of the doldrums. But what the company has just launched – a new MVNO called GameStop Mobile – is almost inexplicable.
GameStop Mobile is, in short, an unlimited data and voice offering for $55 a month (down to $20 a month for pay-as-you-go plans.) GameStop is just selling SIM cards and service and is running on AT&T’s network with some notable dead spots.
The stores actually do take trade-in electronics so, potentially, the company could begin selling unlocked GSM phones to customers who come in for games. Because of the intended audience – kids and the adults who bring them as well as a few die-hards who aren’t yet into PC gaming – it makes some sense for this service to exist.
The synergy also opens AT&T to new markets and, more important, places GameStop right at the nexus of mobile and gaming – a place it absolutely needs to be once future consoles stop accepting optical media.
However, with revenue down and hard-core gamers moving to services like Origin and Steam, there is little impetus for folks to trek out to the local GameStop for titles. Here’s hoping this latest attempt at monetizing the audience works as well as their midnight launches of Diablo III.
Save the date! In honor of Small Business Week, we’re holding a Twitter chat on May 23 at 3:00 pm Eastern time, on the topic of online marketing. I am thrilled to partner again with Stephanie Chandler on this event.
We’re going to cover some of your favorite topics – from email marketing, to local listings, to online reviews, to optimizing your website, to social media, and more.
A big shout out goes to our sponsor, Yahoo! Small Business, for making it possible. This Twitter chat came about almost by accident. I recently had a chance to preview an intriguing new Marketing Dashboard from Yahoo! Stephanie and I were on the same demo. One thing led to another, and we suggested a Twitter chat.
Those of you who are regular readers know I am a HUGE fan of business dashboards – I write frequently about them. I learned the value of dashboards when I was in the corporate world, where dashboards tend to be highly customized. Most of us don’t have the resources to build customized dashboards for our own businesses, connecting with all of our business systems.
That’s why it’s great to see the growing trend of ready-to-go dashboards for small businesses. Today you can find dashboards for tracking sales, finances, or – now, with the new Yahoo! Marketing Dashboard – for online marketing. Managing your online presence and making sense of all the data you have is more important than ever, as the infographic below shows.
Twitter Chat Details – Mark Your Calendars!
When: Wednesday, May 23, 2012, at 3:00 pm Eastern time Where: On Twitter! Follow the event hashtag #YDashboard to participate
Who: Stephanie Chander (@Bizauthor) and I (@smallbiztrends) are co-hosting.
Sponsor: Yahoo! Small Business (@YSmallBusiness)
Bonus: We’ll be holding random drawings for two $100 AMEX gift cards. But you have to be there!
If you’re new to Twitter chats, check out Lisa Barone’s “How to Participate in a Twitter Chat.”
Click to see larger infographic
From Small Business Trends
How to Pump Up the Volume on Your Online Marketing – Twitter Chat
While, arguably, you’re not going to convince many kids to give up their Topps or Pokemon cards for these things, it’s nice to know they exist. They’re 3D Printer trading cards featuring some of the best 3D printers in the world. You got your Makerbot Replicator, your UP! Printer, and your Printrbot Plus. You got stats on there, a little trivia, some pricing information and then you can trade with your friends (“Awwww man, I need that Reprap clone!”)
You can check them all out here or see them in person at Maker Faire in SF this week. Sadly, they’re not actually printing these things but if they did I’d totally buy a pack.
The impetus? They came to creator Shawn Wallace in a dream:
I had a dream that I found a box of 3D Printer Trading cards from 2012 at the Seekonk Speedway Flea Market. When I awoke I realized that might be a good way to introduce some of the 3D printer makers who will be exhibiting at the Maker Faire Bay Area next week. I’ll be posting these all week in no particular order; collect them all!
