Massive Stock Selloff Expected from Facebook Owners
By: Jay Dillon
Updated: November 14, 2012
As the New York Stock Exchange opened up, a massive amount of stocks from a very popular social media company were expected to be up for grabs Wednesday morning.
Facebook Shares
Hundreds of millions of Facebook shares could hit the market Wednesday, when early employees and investors get a chance to sell about 800 million shares. Facebook's May 18th initial public offering included a "lockup" agreement that restricted some shareholders from selling for a certain period of time. This is the third of five lockup expirations, and by far the largest. The lockups are meant to help boost stock price by keeping stock supply scarce. But it hasn't worked. Facebook shares have lost nearly half their value since debuting at 38 dollars.
Decline in Texting
Could texting be going the way of the land line? Not yet, but according to one telecommunications analyst, text messaging is on the decline. For the first time in U.S. history, the number of monthly texts fell. Now, that's not saying much considering the average cell phone customer now sends 675 texts a month compared to the 700 they were sending earlier in the year. But apparently we're not communicating less, just finding cheaper ways to do it, according to analyst Chetan Sharma. He says more than half of the cell phones in the U-S are smartphones, so rather than texting, more of us are using apps like Skype, Google Voice and Facebook Messenger. Or getting text services built into our phones like Apple's iMessage and BlackBerry's Messenger.
Nexus 4
The much-anticipated smartphone from Google was released Tuesday morning and sold out within minutes! It was expected to be a hot seller after selling out in less than one hour in England. The phone is priced at $300 but does not require a contract.
Elmo
Just one day after news broke that a man was making allegations that he carried on an underage relationship with the puppeteer behind Elmo, he's now recanting his story. The man, who's now 23, claimed he started a relationship with Kevin Clash when he was 16. Clash, who's 52, stated that was never the case, and that it was a relationship between two consenting adults. His accuser released a statement through his attorneys today acknowledging that was indeed the case. Clash says he's relieved the painful allegation has been put to rest. He had taken a leave of absence from "Sesame Street."
Papa John's
Customers nationwide have filed a $250 million class-action lawsuit because they say the popular pizza chain has sent out a half million unwanted spam texts. The messages offered pizza deals, but some customers said they got 15 or 16 of them in a row in the middle of the night. One of the plaintiffs said Papa John's never asked permission to text the advertisements, which was banned under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991. The plaintiffs are seeking $500 per text but could get up to $1,500 per text if the jury rules that Papa John's willfully broke the law. The company's corporate office says they were not involved because the lawsuit involves a small number of their franchisees.
Facebook Shares
Hundreds of millions of Facebook shares could hit the market Wednesday, when early employees and investors get a chance to sell about 800 million shares. Facebook's May 18th initial public offering included a "lockup" agreement that restricted some shareholders from selling for a certain period of time. This is the third of five lockup expirations, and by far the largest. The lockups are meant to help boost stock price by keeping stock supply scarce. But it hasn't worked. Facebook shares have lost nearly half their value since debuting at 38 dollars.
Decline in Texting
Could texting be going the way of the land line? Not yet, but according to one telecommunications analyst, text messaging is on the decline. For the first time in U.S. history, the number of monthly texts fell. Now, that's not saying much considering the average cell phone customer now sends 675 texts a month compared to the 700 they were sending earlier in the year. But apparently we're not communicating less, just finding cheaper ways to do it, according to analyst Chetan Sharma. He says more than half of the cell phones in the U-S are smartphones, so rather than texting, more of us are using apps like Skype, Google Voice and Facebook Messenger. Or getting text services built into our phones like Apple's iMessage and BlackBerry's Messenger.
Nexus 4
The much-anticipated smartphone from Google was released Tuesday morning and sold out within minutes! It was expected to be a hot seller after selling out in less than one hour in England. The phone is priced at $300 but does not require a contract.
Elmo
Just one day after news broke that a man was making allegations that he carried on an underage relationship with the puppeteer behind Elmo, he's now recanting his story. The man, who's now 23, claimed he started a relationship with Kevin Clash when he was 16. Clash, who's 52, stated that was never the case, and that it was a relationship between two consenting adults. His accuser released a statement through his attorneys today acknowledging that was indeed the case. Clash says he's relieved the painful allegation has been put to rest. He had taken a leave of absence from "Sesame Street."
Papa John's
Customers nationwide have filed a $250 million class-action lawsuit because they say the popular pizza chain has sent out a half million unwanted spam texts. The messages offered pizza deals, but some customers said they got 15 or 16 of them in a row in the middle of the night. One of the plaintiffs said Papa John's never asked permission to text the advertisements, which was banned under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991. The plaintiffs are seeking $500 per text but could get up to $1,500 per text if the jury rules that Papa John's willfully broke the law. The company's corporate office says they were not involved because the lawsuit involves a small number of their franchisees.
