ipos

As the problems in Facebook's opening day trading surfaced, Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld didn't know it was happening, the Wall Street Journal reported today (subscription required).

The articles provides a play-by-play of the stock exchange's system breakdown on May 18, when banks and firms lost millions of dollars as order confirmations failed and then a wave of panicked cancellations jammed the system. It also notes that Nasdaq shortened Facebook's waiting period to join the index to just three months, according to an unnamed WSJ source. The wait can normally take as long as two years.

Greifeld … Read more

After a couple of tweets said investment bank UBS plans to sue the Nasdaq over Facebook trading losses, the investment bank said it is still examining how to recoup its losses from the Facebook IPO and has yet to file suit.

Two tweets from CNBC's Twitter account this morning said UBS could have lost as much as $350 million on Facebook trading and was "preparing legal action against Nasdaq as a result of Facebook trading loss."

Previous estimates have put collective loss at more than $100 million, but market maker Knight Capital Group said its own losses … Read more

Nasdaq's $40 million payout plan for the mishandling of the Facebook IPO is "underwhelming at best," according to one of the market makers caught up in that botched initial day of trading.

Knight Capital Group CEO Thomas Joyce pegged the trading losses at around $200 million, with his own firm's losses ranging between $30 million and $35 million, according to Bloomberg.

Previous estimates said the losses would exceed $100 million.

Knight Capital executes stock orders from individual investors through retail brokers and guarantees the price of a transaction, which means it lost money on Facebook's … Read more

Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld said stock market officials "owe the industry an apology" for the technical difficulties firms and banks experienced during Facebook's opening day, in a one-on-one interview with the Wall Street Journal about the IPO debacle.

Greifeld told the WSJ that he and his staff have made an "entirely clinical, analytical" review of the events in order to calculate trading losses. Earlier today, the exchange filed a $40 million payout plan to compensate brokers for losses resulting from Nasdaq's own trading glitches on May 18, when a 30-minute delay was followed by … Read more

Nasdaq submitted plans to offer up to $40 million to financial firms that lost money after the botched Facebook stock launch, Dow Jones reported today.

The one time payout would aim to subside the discontent among banks and trading firms who experienced technical difficulties and losses during the IPO's opening. The Securities and Exchange Commission still needs to approve the payouts, which seems to be small. Collective losses have been estimated by some to exceed $100 million.

Investors put the blame on Nasdaq after a shaky opening day.

The stock opened on May 18 after a 30 minute delay, … Read more

It looks like Nasdaq has a plan to compensate Facebook investors for losses incurred as a result of technical glitches that dogged the company's IPO.

The stock exchange plans to submit plans tomorrow with the Securities and Exchange Commission that will outline its first steps to makes up for losses suffered by banks and trading firms, sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal (subscription required). Collective losses have been estimated by some to exceed $100 million.

CNET has contacted Nasdaq for comment and will update this report when we learn more.

Nasdaq officials had previously expressed regret … Read more

Do you spend less time on Facebook than you did six months ago? If so, you're not alone.

A recent survey of Facebook users found that 34 percent of them spend less time on the site than they did half a year ago. Why the cold shoulder?

Those among the 34 percent described Facebook as "boring," "not relevant," or "not useful." Concerns over privacy ranked third on the list.

Only 20 percent said they now spend more time on the social network, while almost half spend around the same amount of time. Among … Read more

One of the most prominent people in Silicon Valley's startup world is warning that Facebook's disastrous IPO performance will lead to hard times for startups.

Paul Graham, the co-founder of the first and most influential startup incubator anywhere, sent an e-mail to his portfolio companies warning them that Facebook has made it a lot harder to raise money. Graham wrote that "the startups that really get hosed are going to be the ones that have easy money built into the structure of their company: the ones that raise a lot on easy terms, and are then led … Read more

Facebook has been served with another lawsuit related to its IPO by investors who claim the company's executives and its bankers misled them by "selectively disclosing" material information about its revenue outlook.

The lawsuit (see below), which was filed Friday in U.S. District Court for Southern New York, is based on reports that, in the days before the public offering, the lead underwriter for the deal told major clients it was reducing its revenue forecast for the company. The underwriters of the deal -- Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs -- reportedly reduced their estimates … Read more