HUA HIN, Thailand - Facebook fans today
get their chance to grab a chunk of the company
on the Nasdaq stock market following its US$16
billion initial public offering, the biggest yet
by a technology company. The stock may rise as
much as 50% above their IPO price of $38,
according to some analysts.
The sale,
which values Facebook at over $104 billion, makes
it the largest company to go public in the US by
market capitalization, less than a decade after it
was founded by the now 28-year-old Mark
Zuckerberg, whose stake is now worth $19 billion.
The company value puts it on a par with Amazon,
and larger than Disney and Ford.
Facebook
has yet to indicate where the cash will go, but
investment in mobile technologies is expected, as
more than 50%
of Facebook's estimated
900 million users login to the social network from
mobile devices.
One challenge facing
Zuckerberg is how to maintain the company's
valuation. An Associated Press/CNBC poll this week
found that 50% of the 1,000 people surveyed
considered Facebook a passing fad, while only 13%
said they trusted the company completely when it
came to keeping their personal information
private; the rest were skeptical. Even so, over
40% of American adults use Facebook to share
content and connect with friends.
Nor has
Facebook's targeted advertising model been the
overwhelming success the company had hoped for.
Around 83% of the poll respondents said they
"hardly ever" or "never" click on the ads served
up. Those who do are helping to push up Facebook's
revenues, which reached $4.34 per user last year
from $3.07 in 2009. That is well behind Google,
which makes over $30 per user per year through its
targeted advertising.
More advertisers may
also follow the example of General Motors, the
US's largest automaker, which has said it would
abandon Facebook ads after concluding they were
ineffective. Ford, for the time being, reaffirmed
its commitment to marketing with the social
network.
Facebook also makes money from
the purchase of credits, allowing users to buy
virtual goods in online games such as Farmville,
but this accounted for only 18% of its total
advertising revenue last quarter.
Security Gone are the days when
the security and virus-free environment of Apple
Macs lured people away from Windows. Recent
outbreaks of malware, such as the Flashback flare
up last month, which infected an estimated 650,000
Macs, have done more than just dent the egos of
Apple users.
Apple released patches and
tools to remove the Flashback Trojan, which
exploited a vulnerability in Java to install
itself onto Mac OS and create a botnet, but
longer-term damage may have already been done. The
digital incursion came less than a year after
another malware spike in the form of a fake app
called Mac Defender broke the defenses of Apple's
operating system.
Apple is notoriously
defensive over its software and insists on
updating it itself. This stance allowed the
Flashback malware to spread so quickly as the
company was slow to adopt Oracle's attempts to
patch Java on Mac OS in favor of its own.
Security firm Kaspersky has begun
conducting in depth analysis of OS X
vulnerabilities and possible new strains of
malware that may target it. Executives warn that
iOS on iPhones and iPads will be the next targets
and Apple needs to be on its toes to keep up with
the threats as its mobile platforms gain in
popularity.
Several security software
companies including Kaspersky, Sophos, F-Secure,
and Avast already offer anti-virus and malware
protection software for Macs.
Industry Struggling Internet
outfit Yahoo has axed its chief executive just
four months after his appointment. Scott Thompson,
who previously headed PayPal, stepped down on
Sunday after his position became untenable because
of a scandal involving a false claim to a computer
science degree.
Yahoo will not be paying
any severance but Thompson will be able to keep a
$1.5 million bonus and restricted stock valued at
$5.5 million.
Executive vice president
Ross Levinsohn, whose previous experience includes
heading Rupert Murdoch's Fox Interactive, has
taken over as interim CEO.
Martin J
Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent
based in Thailand.
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Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights
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