Facebook has can tanks share on the first day of early investors dump

9:30 AM early, Facebook, first, investors, share, tanks No Comments

Facebook's share price fell to an all-time low Thursday, as the first part of a so-called "hang" time for the most important investors in the company to an end.

The period lasted for 90 days after the social network of IPO on May 18, prevents that some early investors and insiders sell million shares that they own in Facebook.

These early investors include Accel Partners, a venture capital firm and Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs. Facebook insiders include members such as PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn is.

Facebook's share price took a Thursday morning Rammender, although it is unclear whether the decline is to insider selling their shares or other shareholders sell on concerns that insiders could be unloaded their shares in the company. Everyone has to have seller take three working days to your sales report.

Lockup periods prevent insider sell their shares too close to a public offering, caused volatility in a stock.

More than 5 percent at $20, gefallener by 7.1 percent to an all-time low of $19.69 in trade in the morning until the afternoon trade Thursday was Facebook's share price. Facebook share price has lost 48% of its value since its debut in may in a $38 price.

Some early investors include 270 million shares for sale Thursday was available-more than half of the 421 million shares, the Facebook its initial public offering in may sold.

But on Thursday, end is only the beginning of a troubling time for Facebook shareholders.

This fall of 1.20 billion shares for sale, shares are flooding the market with Facebook as a second waiting for the stock end and may decrease the value of the shares of the company. The final lockup period ends IPO next may, a year after Facebook's.

Facebook has faced a difficult three months since the public offering which was one of the most expected IPOs in history.

The company suffered by botched public offer, marred by trading of glitches on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. The share price has the price for the offer critics who say underwriting banks traded does not have $38 since his debut, leading too high and too many shares sold to the public.

Investors are also concerned about Facebook's ability to make money from its users, of which many now access the site from mobile devices where the company derives little advertising revenue.

Mark Hawtin, investment Director of GAM, a, made the bullish case for Facebook on CNBC Thursday, say Facebook find finally a way asset management firm, earning nearly 1 billion users.

"I have confidence in the company," he said:

Still, market generated much negative comment to StockTwits Thursday action for Facebook's stock, micro-blogging site has investors.

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Go share GroupOn for a massive discount

8:00 AM discount, GroupOn, massive, share No Comments

Frank Sennett, "GroupOn the largest ever deal" author, offers you perspective on the daily company.

Shares of GroupOn are depressed, always Tuesday after the website latest result report showed that the strategy of the company is losing every day much momentum.

GroupOn was share price in recent times by 25 percent to $5.68, have hit an all-time low.

Investors are concerned about signs of slowness in the company daily offers advertising economy and international economic downturn such as GroupOn with Europe's economic problems concerned.

"Significantly faster than the company thought the daily business of the offers is slowed down," said Mark S. Mahaney, Internet analyst at Citigroup investment research, CNBC, adding that he did not expect to raise the stock price the basic operations of GroupOn.

"Until a stabilisation in our core business, the Commons will not go," he said.

GroupOn grew strongly, if it was a private company, by integrating local merchants with millions of everyday outreach on its website. The company went in early November and is one of a number of high-profile Internet companies-including names such as Zynga and Facebook, which have disappointed investors since their IPOs.

Since his debut in market late last year has GroupOn the share price fell 78 percent, as its offers daily business has faced increasing competition from Broncos and SocialBuy.

GroupOn tries now in new businesses such as consumer product sales and dealer services-to expand, which have much lower areas. The strategy puts GroupOn in direct competition with Internet heavyweights such as Amazon and eBay.

"they need to support the daily offers space, clearly before them these additional markets to go", said Frank Sennett, author of "Groupon the biggest deal ever," CNBC said.

The challenges that is faced with GroupOn in Europe that has to fight with slow economic growth, is a major concern, he added.

"[GroupOn] a good model in downtime, you want to be," said Sennett.

"If GroupOn does not do well, if people are looking for a bargain, that might be a pretty big problem," Sennett added.

Reuters contributed to this story.

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Judge committed themselves, Strauss-Kahn share

7:18 AM committed, Judge, share, StraussKahn, themselves No Comments

NEW YORK — Smiling faintly as he walked out of court, former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest Friday after prosecutors acknowledged serious questions about the credibility of the hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault.

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The charges against him stand — for now, at least. But weeks after saying it had a strong case that was only getting stronger, the district attorney's office was on the defensive. So was the housekeeper's lawyer, who continued to insist that Strauss-Kahn had violently abused the woman.

An attorney for Strauss-Kahn, meanwhile, called the turn of events "a great relief." The case underscores "how easy it is for people to be charged with serious crimes and for there to be a rush to judgment," William W. Taylor said.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, had been confined for weeks to a luxury New York City townhouse on $6 million bail after his arrest on attempted rape charges that forced his resignation as head of the International Monetary Fund and appeared to destroy any hope he had of running for president of France next year.

But then, on Friday, defense lawyers went into court to ask that his bail conditions be eased, with prosecutors' assent.

Timeline: Dominique Strauss-Kahn (on this page)

"The strength of the case has been affected by the substantial credibility issues regarding" the accuser, Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon told the judge, who then canceled Strauss-Kahn's bail and most of the other restrictions.

Just hours after his release from house arrest, Strauss-Kahn left the townhouse and dined out at Scalinatella, a pricey Italian restaurant on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

It was his first taste of freedom since he was taken from a Paris-bound jetliner on May 14 and arrested on charges of sexually assaulting the maid.

'Truth and facts'
According to prosecutors, the woman admitted she lied to a grand jury about what she did immediately after the alleged attack. She actually went on cleaning rooms instead of reporting the episode right away, prosecutors told the defense in a letter.

She also told prosecutors a tearful, vivid but untrue story of having been gang-raped in her native Guinea, later admitting it was among various false accounts of oppression that she had been told to memorize to enhance her 2004 application for political asylum, prosecutors said.

A source familiar with the case told NBC News that investigators uncovered past incidents where the accuser was untruthful. On her asylum application, "she lied extensively, including information about a claim of having been raped," the source said.

When asked by prosecutors about the past rape claim, she recounted the story "in a believable way," the source told NBC News. When questioned again, she admitted to those prosecutors that "she lied to them ... and on the application about the whole rape claim."

And she claimed someone else's child as her own dependent and lied about her income on tax forms, prosecutors said.

Her lawyer, Kenneth Thompson said the illiterate woman received bad advice that she needed to "hype" her petition for U.S. asylum.

A victim of female genital mutilation, she did not want the same fate to befall her daughter but did not know that would be enough to qualify for asylum, Thompson said. Instead she told a story of political prosecution.

District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. portrayed the turnabout as a case of prosecutors doing the right thing.

"Our commitment to the truth and the facts will govern how we proceed" in the Strauss-Kahn case, he told reporters.

Neither he nor Strauss-Kahn's lawyers took questions.

Authorities have not said specifically what they now think of the truthfulness of the woman's allegations against Strauss-Kahn. Investigators found traces of his semen on her uniform, and that is powerful evidence there was a sexual encounter of some kind, though the defense has said anything that happened was not forced.

Still, the apparent lies about her background and her behavior could seriously damage her credibility as a witness if the case goes to trial.

Edward A. McDonald, a defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor and assistant district attorney in New York City, said dropping the case could be next. Prosecutors are "sending a real clear sign that they've gotten to the point where they think there is little hope of rescuing the case," he said.

Another hearing is set for July 18. Strauss-Kahn did not get his passport back and will not yet be allowed to leave the country, but he will be free to travel within the U.S., his lawyers said.

Strauss-Kahn himself remained mum Friday, but he strode confidently up the granite steps to the courthouse with his wife, French journalist Anne Sinclair, at his side, after they arrived in a Lexus SUV. After the short hearing, he slowly walked out the building with his arm on her shoulder, smiling at the crowd outside.

Moments later, the accuser's attorney, Kenneth Thompson, fired back.

"It is clear that this woman made some mistakes, but that doesn't mean she's not a rape victim," the lawyer said.

Claims of violent attack
The 32-year-old hotel maid accused Strauss-Kahn of chasing her through his luxury suite in May, trying to pull down her pantyhose and forcing her to perform oral sex. Thompson said Strauss-Kahn bruised the woman's genitals, tore a ligament in her shoulder and ripped her stockings.

"From day one, she has described a violent sexual assault that Dominique Strauss-Kahn committed against her," Thompson said. "She has described that sexual assault many times, to prosecutors and to me, and she has never once changed a single thing about that encounter."

He accused the district attorney of shying away from the high-profile case and blasted as lies media reports that the woman was involved with a drug dealer.

The New York Times, citing unidentified law enforcement officials, reported that the woman was recorded on the phone with a boyfriend incarcerated in an immigration jail in Arizona soon after she made the allegations against Strauss-Kahn.

The conversation was in a dialect of Fulani, a language from the woman's native Guinea, a law-enforcement official told the Times.

“She says words to the effect of, ‘Don’t worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I’m doing,’ ” the official said, according to the newspaper.

Strauss-Kahn was held without bail for nearly a week after his May arrest. His lawyers ultimately persuaded a judge to release him by agreeing to an ankle monitor, surveillance cameras and armed guards. The security measures were estimated to cost him as much as $200,000 a month, on top of the $50,000-a-month rent on the townhouse in the city's TriBeCa section.

Prosecutors at the time wanted him kept him in jail, arguing that because of the seriousness of the charges, he might flee the country. In releasing Strauss-Kahn on Friday, State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus said: "In light of recent developments, the risk that you would not be here appears to have receded quite a bit."

If the case collapses, it could once again shake up the race for the French presidency. Before the scandal, Strauss-Kahn, a prominent Socialist, had been seen as a leading potential challenger to conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy. French politician Michele Sabban said the Socialists should suspend the presidential primary calendar because of the new developments.

The new doubts about Strauss-Kahn's accuser could also feed suspicions in France that he was the victim of a politically motivated setup.

Indeed, Maxime Laumailler, an economics student from Rennes, France, who was standing outside the New York courthouse, called the case "a plot" against Strauss-Kahn.

"We are so surprised that the Americans are pre-judging him like this," said Laumailler's girlfriend, Charlotte LeBihan.

After Friday's hearing, Strauss-Kahn returned to the brick townhouse. A deliveryman arrived a few hours later with an arrangement of red, white and blue balloons, along with one shaped like the Statue of Liberty.

The card read, "Enjoy your freedom on Independence Day," said deliveryman Sean Hershkowitz. He said he didn't know who sent the greeting.

NBC News, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.

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Egypt's neighbours share catalysts for unrest

3:54 PM catalysts, Egypts, neighbours, share, unrest No Comments

In Tunisia, cries of joy and a thunderous honking of horns greeted the news that Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak had stepped down. Last month, a popular uprising there forced dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali into exile and sparked the Egyptian protests.

In Beirut, fireworks erupted over the capital only moments after the Egypt's Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak would hand over power to the military.

In Jordan, King Abdullah II swore in a new cabinet Thursday after nationwide protests brought promises to launch political reforms, although the opposition dismissed the move as insufficient.

Last week, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told The Wall Street Journal that he will push for more political reforms in his country, acknowledging that the north African protests are ushering in a "new era" in the Middle East.

"This is the popular demonstration that proves any leader can be toppled," said Eugene Rogan, the director of the Middle East Center at St. Antony's College in Oxford. "For all the other rulers in the region, it's a very sobering moment."

The popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt are at their hearts about crushing poverty and hopelessness — especially among young college grads and a shrinking middle class chafing under autocratic rule rife with corruption.

The turmoil has been fueled by a complex mix of economic, political and social dynamics. The same conditions exist, in varying degrees, in other countries across the region. But analysts say it is hard to predict where or whether the next "domino" might fall.

“It’s very dangerous to paint the Middle East as one monolith with one broad paintbrush,” said Firas Maksad, political consultant at DLA Piper. “They’re 22 countries in very different stages of political social and economic development.”

The conditions that led to revolt in Tunisia and Egypt have been simmering for decades, including corruption among entrenched leadership, widening wealth inequality and a shrinking middle class. More recently, tensions have been stoked by a volatile combination of high unemployment, rising prices and the emergence of a younger generation frustrated with a bleak economic future.

But while many other countries in the region share some or all of these conditions, the risk of widening social turmoil varies widely from one nation to the next.

A gaping wealth divide is one of the most powerful forces threatening stability – both within individual countries and between nations.

Oil-rich states with relatively small populations have been able to provide generous government services and employment that should bolster political stability. In Qatar, for example, per capita GDP was an estimated $145,000 last year and the jobless rate a mere 0.5 percent.

In Yemen, by contrast, per capita GDP was only $2,600 and more than third of the population is unemployed, according to the latest data available from the CIA World Factbook. Yemen’s population is also the youngest in the region — with a median age of just under 18, compared with 24 in Egypt and 36.8 in the United States.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh told parliament last week he would not seek another term in office or hand power to his son — an apparent reaction to protests in his impoverished nation that have been inspired by the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt.

Countries with a large population of young people out of work are among the most vulnerable, say analysts.

“There is such a high level of unemployment — especially youth unemployment — and such a high level of inequality in these countries that creates a social situation that may end in unrest,” Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, told CNBC. “One of the outcomes of this crisis is that in many countries, the tensions between the different parts of these countries have increased.”

Jordan – with a median age of under 22 and a jobless rate of more than 13 percent – is also suffering high youth unemployment. So is Syria, where the median age is 21.5 and the jobless rate is 8.3 percent, and Iraq, where the median age is 20.6 and the jobless rate is over 15 percent.

Government corruption — cited by Egyptian protestors as a catalyst for upheaval — also varies widely in the region. Gulf oil countries like Oman and the United Arab Emirates score relatively well on corruption, while Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Iran, Lebanon and Syria are considered the most corrupt, according to Transparency International, which ranks Middle Eastern countries based on expert opinions and surveys.

The uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia have been relatively unified, in part because the populations of those countries are relatively homogenous. Countries with wider sectarian divisions could produce more violent confrontations, according to Jon Alterman, a senior fellow in the Middle East Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“Jordan would be much bloodier than Egypt because you have a division between East Bank Jordanians and Palestinians — which would rapidly turn into widespread Jordanian on Jordanian violence," he said.

But ethnic divisions can also provide a check on the power of any one group, according to Daniel Goure, a Middle East analyst at the Lexington Institute.

“It’s not always a question of stability," he said. “Sometimes it’s more a question of whether they can beat any opposition. Essentially these minorities have learned that if you don’t hang together you hang separately.”

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For the moment, wealthier Gulf states seem better positioned to weather the ripple effect of the upheaval that has gripped their neighbors to the west. Those include Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, each with per capita GDP of $40,000 or more.

“That’s not to say that these countries have nothing to worry about,” said Alterman. “A number of them have boosted government salaries and taken other steps to try to show deference to their population in the last several weeks.”

Oil-rich Libya recently announced it had set up a $24 billion fund for investment and local development that will focus on providing housing for a rapidly growing population. The move follows cuts in taxes levied on food prices.

Rising prices were cited by protestors in Tunisian and Egypt in their demands for a regime change; Middle East countries with high levels of inflation face similar unrest threats. Like Egypt, Yemen and Iran are also coping with double digit inflation rates. In the short run, food prices are expected to continue to move higher — a problem that the ongoing turmoil could make worse.

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"If these governments now react to these demonstrations and riots by scrambling to buy even more grain in the global markets, these prices are going to go higher - which will create more political instability," Edward Yardeni, the President and Chief Investment Strategist of Yardeni Research.

While the conditions fostering unrest vary widely, so does the potential global impact of any widening of social unrest in the region. As one of the strongest U.S. allies, Egypt plays a critical role in maintaining security in the region – from the movement of troops and equipment through the Suez Canal to a 30 year peace treaty with Israel.

As the U.S. continues to try to stabilize Iraq, Saudi Arabia remains its most important ally and a critical lynchpin in maintaining stability. For now, the threat of unrest there appears low, according to analysts

“That’s partly because so many people work for the government and partly because so much of the middle class is foreign workers,” said Alterman. “They don’t have the opportunity to revolt because at the first sign of trouble they’re deported.”

© 2011 msnbc.com Reprints

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