What a week. After eight years, Mark Zuckerberg takes Facebook public at a $104 billion valuation. His longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan gets her medical degree from the UC San Francisco. He has his 28th birthday.
And to top it all off, they get married today! Mazel tov.
Apparently, the wedding had been in the works for four to five months, according to a source authorized to speak on behalf of the couple.
He's not taking off the hoodie, and he's not going to NYC. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that Facebook will IPO on Friday with CEO Mark Zuckerberg ringing the NASDAQ bell remotely from his company's new Menlo Park headquarters. This follows the trend of companies like Zynga who also rung the IPO bell from home base rather than New York.
About The Discussion, Produced By Reason.com:
«Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg recently declared that he was “cool” with the idea of paying more income taxes. On its face, this might seem like a good idea. Raising the top income tax rate seems like an effective way to make our (already progressive) federal tax system more progressive. Yet as Reason columnist and Mercatus Center economist Veronique de Rugy explains in her weekly appearance on Bloomberg TV, the rationale underlying this policy recommendation ignores the complexities of the United States federal tax system. By separating economic myth from economic truth, de Rugy provides the facts about taxes and spending.
Myth 1: Millionaires who favor of an income tax increase are fiscal heroes.
Fact 1: No, they’re not. Many of the rich get the majority of their income in the form of capital gains and dividends rather than ordinary income. They are essentially advocating a tax increase on those making much less money than they do.
Myth 2: Big government means more redistribution to the poor.
Fact 2: Large governments tend to have less progressive taxation than smaller ones.
Myth 3: The doomsday projections about unfunded Social Security and Medicare obligations are overstated.
Fact 3: The unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare exceed one full year of the United States’ gross domestic product. That’s on top of the spending that’s supposedly funded.»
For Additional Info, Read The Facts About Taxes and Spending, By Veronique De Rugy’s.
Influential Hedge Fund Manager, David Einhorn, Has Called For Microsoft Corp Chief Executive, Steve Ballmer, To Step Down.
Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg, And Google Boss, Eric Schmidt, Warns Governments Worldwide Not To Over-Regulate The Internet.
Vincent R. Reinhart, An Economist At The American Enterprise Institute, Argues That The Fed’s Quantitative Easing Program Has Raised The Oil Price.
Asian Buyers Accounted For The Majority Of New Home Purchases In Central London.
Supermarkets Are Successful Because They Provide What We Want At A Reasonable Price, Writes Stephen Pollard.
World Peace, Mapped.
Sidestepping Horse And Headbanging Giraffe At Japan World Cup (video).
Barack Obama’s Cute Signature.
What Random New Yorkers With Headphones Listen To (video).
Burberry, British Luxury Goods Brand, Profits Jump 40pc On Emerging Markets.
YTD: Percentage rise of Burberry's shares since May 26, 2010, compared with FTSE 100 // Telegraph.co.uk
The graphs above are from The Wall Street Jourals summary of the financial events in 2010. Story: Bumpy Climb for Stocks in 2010.
Financial Times has also made a neat overview of numbers that mattered the past year here: 2010 in figures: what it all adds up to.
Year To Date Relative Futures Performance [Chart via Finviz.com]
(Good thing palladium isn’t important for much):
Sara Grillo CFA of Diamond Oak Capital Advisors thinks: Now Is The The Right Time To Buy Cheap Shipping Stocks.
Mark Zuckerberg is Man Of The Year. Image by jdlasica via Flickr
From Ritholtz’ Blog The Big Picture:
“If history holds, TIME has just marked the top in the value of Facebook — at least for the foreseeable future. The Bezos cover marked the high point in Aamzon.com’s stock for the next 10 years.
Understand the psychology of why this is: By the time any phenomena reaches the editorial room meetings of a major non business publication such as Time, it is already a widely held social factor.”
Further reading here.
By jdlasica via Flickr
Facebook Inc is the third largest web company, valued higher than Ebay. The two corporations FB is trailing are obviously Amazon and Google. Unlike the mentioned peers, FB is not publicly listed, yet. Been longing for a bet on the the Juggernaut? Now EB Exchange Funds LLC makes betting on FB easier for main street with derivatives:
Facebook Inc.’s surging valuation is spurring shareholders to slice and dice their stock, giving investors everywhere from Silicon Valley to Wall Street a chance to bet on the company.
EB Exchange Funds LLC, based in San Francisco, as well as New York firms Felix Investments LLC and GreenCrest Capital LLC, have opened Facebook funds for investors looking to get a piece of the social-networking company and its half-billion users.
By creating derivatives of the stock, the investment firms are helping Facebook keep its shareholder count at 499 or less, the maximum number a company can have before it has to disclose results to the public. They’re also potentially creating a new class of assets for investors, letting them tap fast-growing private companies like Twitter Inc., Zynga Game Network Inc. and LinkedIn Corp. — all valued in the billions of dollars.
Addendum from notorious blogger, Twitter enthusiast and investor Paul Kedrosky of Infectious Greed:
“Unbelievable, dangerous, greed-headed and yet another example of the craven idiocy of what passes for regulatory oversight in this country.”
Full story from BusinessWeek here.
Mark Zuckerberg by jdlasica via Flickr
Another brilliant comment from Shaun Rein on starting up a business:
All too often they let naysayers discourage them, they fail to listen to market demands, and they don’t delegate enough.
Full article via Forbes here.
Barron’s: Profit From the Absence of Risk. Much of the “risk premium” in puts and calls that expire in a month or two has been erased. Now may be a good time to use cheap options to hedge your stock portfolio against a decline.
BBC: China moves on US chicken imports. China’s government says it will impose import duties on US chicken products it says are being unfairly dumped on the Chinese market.
Lehman by Christopher S. Penn via Flickr
Bloomberg: Lehman Art Sale Raises $12.3 Million for Creditors at Sotheby’s, New York. A sale of art from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. yesterday raised $12.3 million for creditors.
BusinessWeek: More Wives Head For Work. As men cope with unemployment amid the stalled economic recovery, more married women are taking their first job or increasing their hours.
CNBC: The Scrap Indicator. If the market in scrap is any indication, things could be looking up for the US economy.
MarketWatch: U.S. Economy is stuck in a rut. Manufacturing, consumer confidence and personal income reports won’t show significant growth.
Reuters: The week ahead: Manufacturing in focus. Reuters editors say investors will focus on upcoming ISM manufacturing data for signs of economic growth, and watch out for a RIM offering to challenge Apple’s iPad.
The Business Insider: Job Losses Coming In A Few Weeks, As Key Stimulus Program Ends. A key subsidized jobs program won’t be getting extended.
The Financial Times: Bridge building: Teaching Jewish and Muslim entrepreneurs.
The Guardian: Fears that arts degrees are becoming ‘gentrified’. Study shows wealthiest students dominate arts and humanities subjects such as history and philosophy.
The New York Times: Economic View : What the Rich Don’t Need. Want to give affluent households a present worth $700 billion over the next decade? In a period of high unemployment and fiscal austerity, this idea may seem laughable. Amazingly, though, it is getting traction in Washington.
The Telegraph: The Tories must make the case for capitalism. Even if Labour becomes irrelevant electorally under Ed Miliband, its assumptions could dominate debate.
The Wall Street Journal: Market War Between Traders, Investors. Some of the country’s biggest investors are hoping to strike back after years of having their buy and sell orders picked off by high-frequency trading firms.
Barron’s: Will the Stock Market Lose Some Steam? While the S&P 500 is up nicely in recent weeks, other technical indicators are painting a less positive picture for the market going forward.
BBC: Irish economy contracts by 1.2%.
Bloomberg: Obama, Wen Pledge Cooperation on Economic Issues. President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged their countries to closer cooperation on economic issues to foster the global recovery.
Scotney Castle, Lamberhurst, Kent via Lincolnian (Brian) via Flickr
BusinessWeek: No End in Sight for Britain’s Bank Rescue. The British government still holds big stakes in RBS and Lloyds—and it’s unlikely to sell them soon
CNBC: Vote on Bush Tax Cuts Is Now Unlikely Before Nov. Elections. Congress will not vote on extending Bush-era tax cuts before the November elections, a Senate leader said Thursday, reflecting fear among Democrats that it could hurt their chances at the polls.
MarketWatch: Petrobras sets sights high. Brazilian oil giant is close to pricing the largest share offering on record, though sale might fall short of funding ambitious oil-production plans.
Reuters: Buffett: We’re still in a recession. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says the U.S. economy remains in recession despite a recent report to the contrary, adding: “We’re not gonna be out of it for a while, but we will get out.”
The Business Insider: Meet the world’s 100 most valuable digital startups.
The Financial Times: Biker jackets, snakeskin and black patent; leather made a return at London Fashion Week.
The Guardian: Walsh claims London’s status as top business centre is under threat. Merger between British Airways and Iberia likely to be completed by end of year as last obstacle to deal has been cleared
The New York Times: The Austerity Zone: Life in the New Europe. The prospects of many Europeans have been hurt by the debt crisis, stagnant growth and cutbacks.
The Telegraph:177 quangos to be scrapped. A further 94 bodies are still under threat, four will be privatised and 129 will be merged, according to a Cabinet Office list.
The Wall Street Journal: King of My Castle. The idea of welcoming dinner guests across a drawbridge may be romantic, but if your home is a castle, the maintenance costs can be daunting. We reveal what it takes to buy and renovate a castle in Europe.
Barron’s: A Hedge to Preserve the Edge. Buy cheaply priced puts to hedge recent stock gains and protect against future declines.
BBC: Anti-social behaviour cuts feared.
Bloomberg: Ryanair’s O’Leary Plans Shift to Major Airports as Growth Slows. Ryanair Holdings Plc is looking at opening routes to all major European airports bar the top three as slowing growth prompts the region’s top discount carrier to modify a strategy based on flying only to less-costly terminals.
BusinessWeek: Facebook Sells Your Friends. How Facebook plans to leverage its 550 million users into the greatest advertising juggernaut since Google.
CNBC: Thursday: US Data, Forex Markets Take Centerstage. Weekly jobless claims and existing home sales are the key numbers to watch Thursday, but investors will keep their focus on the volatile foreign exchange market.
MarketWatch: Stocks’ lost decade raises currencies’ allure. As stocks suffer, traders are increasingly joining the $4 trillion-a-day foreign-currency market.
Reuters: Microsoft yields more than U.S. Not long ago, tech investors didn’t expect, or want, payouts. With growth slowing, shareholders now need better rewards for the industry’s risks, writes Robert Cyran.
The Business Insider: Mark Zuckerberg Explains Why Facebook Is Working On Phone Software: To Be A Platform, Not Just A Service.
The Financial Times: Yachting manufacturers are catching glimpses of a recovery but customer habits have changed.
The Guardian: BA and Iberia merger cleared for takeoff. Merger between British Airways and Iberia likely to be completed by end of year as last obstacle to deal has been cleared
The New York Times: Buyers Send iPhones on a Long Relay to China. Demand for Apple gadgets has created a system for buying iPhones in New York and reselling them in China.
The Telegraph: Global food risk from China-Russia pincer. China becomes a net importer of corn for the first time in modern history and Russia’s drought inflicts more damage than expected.
The Wall Street Journal: Bordeaux’s Best-Kept Secret. IThere are still a few ways to drink like a king on the wage of a pauper. One way to drink beautifully crafted, aged Bordeaux at a fraction of the going rate—buying second wines.
Mark Zuckerberg via Wikipedia
“Today, we are moving from an era of mass consumption to one focused on the individual. Sharp increases in higher education, standards of living, social complexity, and longevity over the past century gave rise to a new desire for individual self-determination: having control over what matters, having one’s voice heard, and having social connections on one’s own terms. The leading edge of consumption is now moving from products and services to tools and relationships enabled by interactive technologies. Amazon.com, Apple, eBay, and YouTube are familiar examples of companies solving today’s premium puzzle.”
Details from the latest McKinsey Quarterly here.
As a part of the plan to tackle the deficit, the UK Government has announced a partnership with Facebook as it seeks to get more for less. The Prime Minister’s office published this brief video conference between David Cameron and co-founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg. This underlines that diplomatic relations are not exclusively a connection between nations and shows the importance of private initiative and innovation. Social Media is a transparent way of communicating with the public while simultaneously decentralizing power and saving money (that is better used elsewhere) – thanks for being open and having the guts, Cameron!
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