ipo

See that image above? That's a plain old giant banner ad grabbed from my Facebook page. It appeared after I logged out. Facebook actually calls them "Logged Out" ads. It rolled them out in February when it was trying to show Madison Avenue it was serious about brand advertising in advance of its IPO.

A social ad? Sort of, I guess. It wants me to "like" it to get an insurance quote. But make no mistake: While Facebook can come up with whatever terminology it wants, this is the sort of ad that Mark Zuckerberg … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- The future for startup funding is "getting more unpredictable."

That's what Y Combinator founder Paul Graham said today, theorizing that because there are so many more young companies getting off the ground these days, venture capitalists may well have a much harder time predicting winners than in the past.

It makes sense. Startups can get going today for as little as a few hundred thousand dollars, so there are many more of them. "But the funnel at the top is the same," Graham said during the Y Combinator Demo Day. "… Read more

While this doesn't look great for those hoping that Facebook's stock starts rebounding, it's hard to accuse Facebook investor Peter Thiel of not being a Facebook believer.

Thiel, who in 2004 put in $500,000 to become Facebook's first outside investor, today revealed in an SEC filing that he sold about 20 million shares on Thursday and Friday at prices between $19.69 to $20.70. That comes to about $400 million -- an impressive return even if he did sell at a price almost half Facebook's IPO price of $38 a share. Thiel already … Read more

A report suggests that Microsoft offloaded around 20 percent of its shares in Facebook just after the social network went public. In doing so, the software giant received $249 million back -- close to $10 million more than it first invested.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company invested $240 million in Facebook in 2007 for a 1.6 percent stake in the social network. Back then it wasn't a huge amount, but was a major boost for Facebook to have a dominant player on its roster. Soon after, Bing Search and Bing Maps were brought to the social network … Read more

The stock market is getting another home listing Web site.

Trulia today filed an S-1 Registration Statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, kicking off the process of holding an IPO and offering its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "TRLA."

According to the documents filed with the SEC, Trulia generated $38.5 million in revenue last year, but lost $6.2 million. During the first six months of 2012, its revenue is way up, jumping to $29 million from $16.2 million during the same period last year. That said, the company … Read more

Well, this was predictable.

For weeks now, pundits, stock analysts and the media have been warning that Facebook shares -- already under pressure for a variety of reasons -- would face a fresh challenge when so-called "lockups" expire, allowinginsiders holding pre-IPO shares to start selling them.

And that's exactly what happened today, doubtless bringing joy to the many short sellers who bet on the stock to fall.

Today's "lockup" expiration was relatively small, with insiders now free to sell 271 million shares, adding to the 421 million already in circulation. Yet it was enough … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- This is the burger that ended Ariel's six-year vegetarian streak

- Groupon turns a profit, but sales fall short

- Groupon salespeople disgruntled, ready to jump ship, report says

- Groupon shares down 22 percent, despite increased sales, profit

- Facedeals lets you check in for coupons with your face

- Chinese Iron Man spends eight years building himself bionic hands after DIY accident

Bathroom break video: The Red Bull F1 running showcar plays the Star-Spangled Banner.

… Read more

The first of Facebook's "lockups" has expired, meaning that insiders can start selling their stock. But so far, it appears that a flood of shares and a plummeting share price aren't in the offing for the social network.

In early-morning trading today, Facebook shares started out down about 5 percent to $20.15. It's by no means a reassuring performance, but things could have been much worse.

Today, 271 million shares were freed from their lockup, allowing insiders included in that grouping to sell as many of those pre-IPO shares as they'd like. However, … Read more

Of all the challenges to Facebook's oh-so-challenged stock -- such as the company's struggle with the giant shift to mobile, and its slowdown of user growth in the U.S. -- one thing Wall Street watchers have been talking a lot about is the upcoming expiration of "lockups" in which insiders can start selling their stock.

And it begins tomorrow. Over the course of the next year, pre-IPO holders of Facebook stock will be able to start dumping their shares, with the potential of adding more than 2 billion shares to the market. In a game … Read more