Facebook’s Ambition Collides With Harsh Market
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: August 20, 2012
MENLO PARK, Calif. — Inside Facebook’s headquarters, a red-and-white poster affixed to a wall asks bluntly: “What Could Go Wrong?”
Below, in black ink, someone has scrawled in tiny letters: “Everything.”
The poster, one of several displayed across this sprawling campus, is part of the company’s risk-taking start-up culture, as is the fact that management has not pulled down the defaced copy. But as the company loses its luster on Wall Street, this exchange on the wall points to the improbable turn that Facebook’s fairy tale has taken.
Once hailed as the most valuable technology company to hit Wall Street, Facebook is now worth just over half what it was three months ago, with shares closing at $20.01 Monday. Wall Street analysts are openly wondering whether its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has the business skills to deliver on his promises.
Facebook’s troubles began in earnest with an exceptionally ambitious initial public offering. Even the grown-ups that Mr. Zuckerberg, 28, chose to run the business side of the company — Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operations officer, and David Ebersman, the chief financial officer — seem not to have been skilled enough to stave off that disaster. Nor were the bankers who handled the deal, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan
(Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week, suggesting the labor market is healing too slowly to make much of a dent in the unemployment rate.
WASHINGTON — The US Congress's budget analysts said Wednesday that current plans designed to slash the budget deficit after January 1 will plunge the country into recession and push up joblessness.
August/22/2012
Aug 22 2012
CMORGAN@MIAMIHERALD.COM
(AP) FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Michael Vick walked slowly off the field, shaken up for the second straight game. And he was eager to get back in the action.
Before Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr and Ellen DeGeneres, Phyllis Diller crashed the mostly male stand-up comedy circuit to become an icon in the field.
Published: August 20, 2012
(Reuters) - Rallying European markets lifted global stocks to a 3-1/2 month high on Tuesday, on hopes that meetings on Greece's future this week and new crisis plans being drawn up by the European Central Bank will see the euro zone master its debt problems.
Amid growing GOP pressure to quit the Missouri Senate race, Rep. Todd Akin has recorded a new TV ad seeking forgiveness for his controversial comments about "legitimate rape."
08/20/2012
Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne announced Monday that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and business executive Darla Moore will be the first female members of the club.
