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Facebook IPO more fizz than pop

week in review The world's largest social-networking company finally went public -- but the event lacked the punch many had expected from the third-largest IPO in history.

After a 30-minute delay in the stock's anticipated opening, shares took observers on a bit of a rollercoaster ride, shooting up to $43.20 from their $38 opening and then dropping back down to a break-even price.

The company raised $16 billion on the sale of 421.2 million shares in the offering, putting it at a valuation of $104.1 billion.

Facebook's IPO maneuver (roundup) Facebook raises $16 billion … Read more

Pinterest joins the billion-dollar network club

It's a good day for pinning photos, protecting privacy and paying your taxes:

Yet another social network joins the billionaires club. The social photo-sharing network Pinterest has been valued at $1.5 billion. The valuation comes after it received a $50 million investment from a Japanese e-commerce site. Pinterest makes no money, but you can bet that investors will push to change that by integrating e-commerce tools. And if you want to see what all the fuss is about, here are some tips and tricks to getting started on Pinterest.

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin is under fire for dropping … Read more

Why did Rakuten invest so much in Pinterest? Integration

Pinterest surprised Silicon Valley with the announcement overnight of a $100 million funding round led by Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten.

According to AllThingsDigital, more than $50 million of that sum came from Rakuten.

Why would Rakuten, which generated $4.7 billion in revenue last year, invest so much cash in Pinterest? According to TechCrunch, it may have a lot to do with Rakuten's interest in building its e-commerce business.

Rakuten offers user IDs similar to those from Amazon and Apple. Once people log in to a Rakuten or Rakuten-associated Web site, they can make purchases with the payment information … Read more

Pinterest pins down $100M in new funding

Last update: May 17 at 4:38 a.m. PT.

Pinterest has garnered investment interest from one of the world's largest Internet service providers, in a move that could value the social photo-sharing service at $1.5 billion.

Rakuten, which runs the largest e-commerce site in Japan, announced Thursday that it is leading a $100 million round of investment in Pinterest. Participating in the round are existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, and FirstMark Capital, along with an unspecified number of angel investors.

Rakuten's portion of the funding is in excess of $50 million, according to All Things D, … Read more

Houston hospital live tweets successful brain surgery

People are willing to tweet just about anything -- in 2009, Erykah Badu famously tweeted away during labor, and just this past month, the National Zoo live-tweeted the artificial insemination of a giant panda.

So it should come as no surprise that earlier today folks at the Houston-based Memorial Hermann Hospital live-tweeted via the handle @houstonhospital the "rabid play-by-play" of the removal of a tumor from a 21-year-old woman's brain.

The procedure spanned several hours and resulted in dozens of tweets, video uploads on YouTube, and a dizzying array of graphic photos via Twitter and Pinterest.

Dr. … Read more

Ultrabooks no longer ultra-pricey

In today's show, Google takes us for a spin, ultrabooks are no longer ultra-pricey, and the iPad isn't just for humans anymore:

Hewlett-Packard announced several new thin and light laptops under the Envy brand. Some are officially called ultrabooks, equiped with Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processors, while less-expensive ones are called sleekbooks. But regardless of the different labels, it means high-quality thin and light laptops are moving into the $600 to $700 price range. (There's even a rumor that the MacBook Air -- the computer that kickstarted the ultrabook craze -- will drop its price to $… Read more

Cybercrooks bring their schemes to Tumblr and Pinterest

Social networks have long been a target for cybercriminals, but now the bad guys are expanding their horizons.

Malware writers are aiming at such hot social networks as Tumblr and Pinterest to trap a new wave of victims, says a report out yesterday from GFI Software.

"Established sites like Facebook and Twitter have long been a breeding ground for new cyberattacks, but now we are seeing scammers taking an interest in the popularity of newer sites like Pinterest in order to catch victims off guard and trick them into clicking on something they shouldn't," Christopher Boyd, senior … Read more

Smartphones beat computers for Facebookers time on site

Smartphones users are spending a lot of time browsing social networks on their phones and Facebook seems to be their network of choice.

A new study released today by digital research company ComScore shows that the average U.S. Facebook mobile user spent more than seven hours perusing the site via cell phone in March and around six hours via the computer.

"Social networking proved to be a particularly popular activity on smartphones with several brands demonstrating exceptionally high engagement, in some cases higher than the corresponding time spent by users via traditional Web access," ComScore's report … Read more

SecondMarket banks on rising tech stars, new markets

SecondMarket, which runs a market for shares of private companies, took a big hit when it lost Facebook as a customer, even letting go of 10 percent of its staff.

So who will replace Facebook, which since SecondMarket got into this business has been its most actively traded stock? That's a tall order, and it's unlikely that any one company will make up for all the trading that went on with Facebook.

Moreover, it's hard to assess what's going on with SecondMarket since the company doesn't disclose much. It won't say, for instance, which … Read more