“The SEC filing behind Facebook’s long-expected IPO has seen company founder Mark Zuckerberg take an Apple cue in his pay,” Electronista reports.
“The CEO earlier this month requested that, as of the start of 2013, his base pay be cut from as much as $500,000 in 2011 to just $1, much like Apple co-creator Steve Jobs. Zuckerberg is known to have taken advice from Jobs and considered his success an aspirational goal,” Electronista reports. “Like Jobs, most of Zuckerberg’s value will come from his stake in the company. At 28.4 percent ownership, the executive is estimated to be worth about $25 billion.”
Electronista reports, “The site generated about 85 percent of its $3.7 billion in 2011 revenue through ads and another 12 percent just through Zynga games like FarmVille or Zynga Poker.”
Read more in the full article here.
Jessica Guynn reports for The Los Angeles Times, “Facebook Inc. filed papers Wednesday with the goal of raising $5 billion in a public stock sale that could come in May. The offering would be the largest among Internet companies, eclipsing Google Inc. in 2004 and Netscape Communications in 1995. Depending on demand, the company could be valued between $75 billion and $100 billion.”
“The IPO could be a bonanza for Mark Zuckerberg, the 27-year-old founder, who owns 28.2% of the company and is its single largest shareholder. His stake could be worth as much as $28 billion, earning him the ninth spot on Forbes’ list of richest Americans and putting him in the same league as Microsoft Corp.’s Bill Gates and Oracle Corp.’s Larry Ellison,” Guynn reports. “Joe Magyer, advisor and senior analyst with the Motley Fool, estimates that investors would be buying Facebook for 25 times sales when they could buy Google at five times sales, equivalent to setting money on fire without striking a match. ‘Facebook is a tremendous business with a lot of growth ahead of it. But it’s going to have to do amazing things for a long time to justify the kind of price it is going public at,’ Magyer said. ‘It’s going to be very difficult for Facebook to live up to the hype.'”
Read more in the full article here.
FB will be the platform, the only platform that matters for hundreds of millions of people. That’s not lighting money with a match.
No, that’s pissing money away by relying on rotating impulse and unpredictable flavor of the minute.
Now you see it now you don’t.
How stupid and shaky can an investment be ? Facebook.
I don’t have the time or acumen to dive into the details of the Facebook IPO, nor have the time to find the right words and write out what I think of that IPO but, came across this report which, if not reality, I found it very objective and the closest to some of the things I was thinking. Good timing for that $1 dollar a year salary!!
Facebook ought to ditch its public offering
By John Gapper
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cd03c402-4dba-11e1-a66e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1lGLate00
I have yet to find a reason to sign up to Facebook.
Facebook an investment/public offering?…what a dumbed down world.
Steve Jobs said the he never did it for the money but because he loved music. Mark Zuckerberg is doing the oposite. It won’t make a difference whether he takes $1 dollar a year.
Investing in dd sentiment will never come close to investing in substance.
Never.
Social media is an on-going experiment with much flux and unpredictability. Yet, this IPO is driven by insanity and Wall Street hunger to cash in on something built on quicksand (where have we seen this craze before???). Eventually, FB may go the way of MySpace (perhaps within 2 to 3 years).
I asked my 15 year old niece what she thought of FB. Her response “that so done”. Better watch today’s teens for shifts in interest and ways of connecting. That’s where the puck is rapidly headed.
Most everyone I know started a FB page, very few still use it. Those who do? Not so much as when they joined.
More power to that wealthy, white male 1 per center for striking it rich for life, but it won’t be on my dime.
(that’s how capitalism works, btw)
“…much like Apple co-creator Steve Jobs.”
uh, try exactly like co-creator Steve Jobs.
Zuckerberg ought to be worth no more than $28.
Goober.
It makes me sick that a douche like Zuckerberg would be worth more than Steve Jobs. That’s just wrong. (But then the same logic applies to Balmer, too.)
If Zuckerberg is worth $28 billion, then Steve Jobs ought to have been a trillionaire…at least.
I’ve had a FB for about 1 year now- get on about twice a month, only when I’m forced to. My 13 year old got a FB around Thanksgiving- she barely uses it now. My 11 year old has no interest. My wife actively ignores it. My medical practice has a FB, but only because they think they need to- it’s barely used. Don’t know how my family ranks among other folks, but I don’t see much value in FB (current incarnation anyway).
My kids would much rather text and FaceTime. I’m into Twitter now- much more valuable.
jdoc – get a life – take your kids fishing, leave your phones behind. Take sandwiches and water.
The $1 salary is something to do to show nervous investors that you’re not trying to just take the money and run. It’s appropriate for the CEO of a company that’s recovering from a near-death experience, like Apple did in the 1990s. For FB today, it’s just grandstanding.
-jcr
precisely.
FarceBook has stalled at just above 800 million users. The AOL (stock) of the 21st century.
By the way, since the founder is kind of like a mother can we call him Mother Zuckerberg? Or Mother Zucker for short?
No, AOL stock of this decade. There WILL be more before 2100.
Fuckerburg will be poorer when FB flames out in a few years. Yeah, if he’s smart, he’ll have moved some of his riches into bonds or other stocks or whatever, but his worth won’t be what it was when FB was riding high.
This is all a conservative plot. Obama is behind it. Zuckerberg and Gingrich are commies…..oh wait, wrong thread. Sorry. 🙂
It’s Bush’s fault.
Zuck can take only $1 in pay, but that does not make him SJ. The people who buy into the FB IPO will very likely lose money.
Facebook is a joke.
You have to be an idiot to invest in it.
The big boys will make a fortune and leave the average Americans holding worthless Facebook stock.
To hell with teens I think the most active members are middle aged. everyone of my older relatives is an active fB user. they play games all the time.
2-3 years, it’ll be around longer than that of course that does not makevit a good investment heh.
I would prefer that he take a salary of $120k per year so that he contributes to Social Security and income tax like the rest of s schlubs that made him rich. If he doesn’t want to at taxes like his working people, taxes that will support us in our retirement and that we must pay because we aren’t as bright as he is then don’t visit Facebook anymore. I’m displeased when hyper-rich executives take no salary and pay little in income tax to the country that gave them an economic system in which they thrive and enrich themselves. This was my one beef with Steve Jobs. Sucker berg, pay into Social Security.
He will be hit with capital gains taxes when he finally cashes out. It’ll be a lower percentage than if he’d paid a regular salary, but will be a larger overall chunk of cash.
Of course, there are ways to reduce the final tax amount but that can be said of any executive salary.
Why don’t we short it and make some money off of people who thought they made a good investment?
Facebook has so many bugs and is SUCH a third rate buggy experience it is a far better analogy to compare Zucky to Gates. I recently was forced to work on a windows computer with others from school and the teacher was having trouble and demonstrating a work-a-round. I looked around and it hit me how many just took this for granted. Jobs would NEVER have let all the bugs at Facebook exist this long. Windows trains people to put up with CRAP-ware. To compare the creator of Facebook to Jobs soooo off the mark.
Does anyone else notice the lack of comments on their friends’ posts? Two years ago someone could post just about anything, and there would be 20 comments on it.
I see people posting pics of thier newborn babies now and hardly anyone gives a shit anymore.
It was fun to sign up and see what old friends were up to… But after a while it all wears off and you realize why you lost contact with them in the first place.
Now you can’t post funny pics or tasteless humor, because you’re Mom’s uncle’s sister is your friend. Or your other friend is now a Jesus freak.
Then there’s the people that have your phone number and email address, but still insist on sending you messages on Facebook.
So, I guess it’s just getting old. It’s ran it’s course for those who have had it for a while. I may thumb through it in the morning while sitting on the pot since the app doesn’t make me log in (while I’m logging out).
I do like the feel sorry for themselves types that post a lot of dramatic crap, but now get ignored.
Marty, the same problem existed prior to Facebook. After I moved to another state for a job, I kept in touch with several friends for years. At first we had a lot to talk about, including my new job and the area where I was living. My friends would keep me up to date with happenings in my old hometown and with other out of state friends. But those topics quickly became stale, and we tended to fall back on discussions of “old times.” The only new discussion topics had to do with vacations or kids, and only grandparents can stay interested in kids sports and school events for long. So the discussions about old times eventually wear out after the tenth iteration and you are left with nothing to talk about except kids and vacations. Facebook does not change that fact very much. Pictures and videos can help, as does the ability to easily comment on things. But the basic problem remains – once you catch up, there is not much left. And few people do interesting stuff on a frequent basis.
Yup! True. That’s why I don’t see Facebook expanding all that much. Maybe I’m wrong… Who knows.
Facebook.
Fad that is past its peak.
Past plateau user-base and in decline in major markets like USA and UK, only growth is coming from emerging markets.
All Hail Feicesbook!
Isn’t FB just a website that makes lots of money off marketing? What will they use all this stock money for? Do they have plans to do any other than have a website? This seems like a bad investment to me.
I echo everything that’s been said. My kids and their friends think it’s old news. I suspect the original investors see the writing on the wall and want to get out (IPO) while the getting is good. Or they’re just stupid, which is just as likely.
If he owns 28% of the stock, he will only be worth 28 billion if the company gets 100 billion from going public. There is no way this company would be worth that much if its revenue is only 3.7 billion per year. If it gets that much, wait a few weeks, then short the company.
The thing I hate about the conversations about Facebook is how people think they are cool when they say they don’t use it anymore. I go on about twice a month if I’m forced to, my daughter doesn’t use it anymore, blah, blah, blah. Well then don’t fucking use it then! Did someone hold a gun to your head and tell you to log on to Facebook? I don’t think so. Its free. Quit your damn whining!!