markets

Facebook's shares are trading lower on their second day on Nasdaq.

In pre-market trading this morning, the company's shares dropped 4.37 percent to $36.56, leaving them below their initial $38 offering price and their first-day close of $38.23.

Facebook's shares rose to a high of $45 on Monday before flirting with falling below their initial price. It was believed that the stock was buoyed by underwriters to ensure it didn't slip below $38.

Aside from Facebook finally going public, the big story on Friday was Nasdaq delaying its opening due to a technical glitch. … Read more

Yahoo today announced Genome, a data-intensive advertising system designed to help marketers navigate the wilds of the "big data landscape" on the way to more precise ad targeting and personalization.

Genome is designed to pull together Yahoo data with third-party data from Interclick and first-party data from advertisers, while also making sense of heaps and heaps of less-structured information. It's all about helping marketers tame what Yahoo terms "the chaos of the data ecosystem" in order to build brand value, boost conversion rates, and elevate revenue.

"With Genome, we can help marketers transform consumer … Read more

Twitter has hired the team behind RestEngine, a 2.5-year-old company that focuses on e-mail marketing.

RestEngine describes itself as a "social marketing automation solution" aimed at app developers and publishers. The company serves up personalized marketing e-mails. Some of its customers include RockYou, UStream, and CrowdStar.

TechCrunch first reported news of the deal, which the outlet says was completed in late April. RestEngine alerted users about the move in a note on its Web site today: … Read more

NEW ORLEANS--Security suite maker AVG has teamed with independent Android marketplace and mobile content provider Livewire to scan all the apps it hosts for malware before they are made available to the public, the companies announced today at CTIA. The deal will also install AVG's free Android security app Mobilation (download) on devices to scan apps after they update.

Jon Lobb, vice president of Global Business Development for mobile at AVG, said that the partnership would keep phones safe from before an app is installed through the app's updates. "It's a belt-to-bracers approach," said Lobb. … Read more

commentary Research In Motion is in need of a drastic change. But its most recent viral-marketing campaign, "Wake Up," hasn't exactly helped it achieve that goal.

The company has updated its "Wake Up" Web page with a short speech telling the corporate world that it should wake up and realize that "it's time to mean business."

"Now before you go looking for your suit and briefcase, we're not talking about that kind of business," a narrator is heard saying as the text scrolls up the page. "Business is … Read more

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

T-Mobile USA is shaking up its marketing strategy, which includes the departure of veteran executive and chief marketing officer, Cole Brodman.

Brodman, who has held various positions and has been with T-Mobile for 17 years, will step down, effective May 25, according to the Dow Jones Newswires.

His departure comes as T-Mobile looks to retake its position in the wireless industry as the upstart and disruptive challenger. The carrier, a unit of Germany's Deutsche Telekom, recently took its once sweet television spokeswoman, Carly, and put her in leather and on a motorcycle, signalling a more aggressive, competitive stance.

Brodman … Read more

April means lots of new first-quarter market share numbers. And research firms are stepping over each other to show that Samsung is faring well vis-a-vis its nemesis Apple -- which isn't doing too badly itself.

ComScore said today that Samsung is the top handset supplier among the 30,000 mobile subscribers surveyed in the U.S., with a 26 percent share in the three-month period ending in March. (see chart below).

In that period, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices, according to ComScore.

LG was No. 2 with 19.3 percent and Apple third with … Read more

The 1Mobile Market for Android offers a curated selection of fun, useful, and otherwise interesting apps, all of which are free. It's unique because it's managed by a team of actual editors, rather than a set of algorithms that try to home in on what you're looking for.

First thing you'll notice is that 1Mobile's main panel looks a bit like a cheap knock-off of Google Play, with its large tiles and similar color scheme. For some, this might be comforting, but for me, it feels a little tacky.

While looks may not be 1Mobile'… Read more