Facebook's Zuckerberg, Thiel sell shares

[Jello Biafra]

By Laura Mandaro

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Facebook Inc. FB -8.90% Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has sold 30.2 million shares and director Peter Thiel has sold 16.8 million shares of the social-networking company, according to securities filings published late Tuesday. The sales confirm plans detailed in a prospectus before Friday's $16 billion IPO. Zuckerberg sold 30.2 million shares at a price of $37.58 for gross proceeds of $1.13 billion; Thiel sold 16.8 million shares for gross proceeds of $633 million. Facebook insiders had told prospective shareholders of their plans in an S-1 filing last week. Facebook FB -8.90% shares were down 0.8% after hours at $30.74.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebooks-zuckerberg-thiel-sell-shares-2012-05-22

TELL ME WHAT A PUMP AND DUMP LOOKS LIKE........

[teddy51]

1. Certainly sounds like a pump and dump to me. No better than a penny stock! Set up an IPO

and then dump your shares into it. I had a (so called) friend that used to do that. He would line up his family and friends, and pump his stock and then sell into the buying.

[True Earthling]

2. Not your usual IPO

Usually these IPO's are way underpriced and the underwriters and their best customers i.e. institutional investors and 1%'ers... make a killing.

[teddy51]

3. You got that right. More like a penny stock (pump and dump) IPO. n/t

[aggiesal]

12. Morgan Stanley reported that . . .

they made $100M on this IPO.

On a side note. Chase is reporting that they have lost almost $7B (B for Billion) playing the Wall St. casino.
$2B in the US, and almost $5B in Europe.

[kestrel91316]

4. "Sell"?? Surely you mean DUMP, right?

[unblock]

5. i always thought there was a 6 month hold on insider selling post ipo.

did something change at some point?

[Jello Biafra]

6. I thought that too....

I guess these are special rules for the 1%..........

[True Earthling]

7. That's the general rule for a merger/acquisition

When there's a stock for stock transfer, the acquired company shareholders who were majority owners are required to hold 50% of their acquired shares for at least 6 months or sometimes a year.

Sometimes companies issue restricted stock to their employees who are required to hold shares post IPO.

[Lucky Luciano]

9. Insiders can sell in the ipo, but do have to wait to sell

afterwards - usually six months. For some reason FB seems it will only be three months.

[True Earthling]

11. I believe that's correct - a condition required by the underwriters to protect their commitment...

and their clients. It wouldn't make sense if Zuck could dump the rest of his shares immediately after the IPO. I believe he sold around 5% of his holdings as part of the offering. He probably has to wait another 6 mos (or 3 if you are correct) before he can sell more.

[Lucky Luciano]

8. Zuckerburg had to sell to pay taxes on exercised options. nt

[former9thward]

10. Hardy a pump and dump.

Zuckerberg did not want to go public with an IPO but when FB passed 500 private shareholders SEC rules kicked in and they went public. He sold approximately 5% of his holdings. That is hardly a 'dump' . He said he sold because he had to raise money to pay taxes.

[TahitiNut]

13. That's NORMAL. Taxes, y'know.

Exercise ISOs and it's tax time.

April may have it's "April Fools Day" ... but this May is 'Greater Fools Month'!!!

[KharmaTrain]

14. Not Much Pump Or Dump...

From the 90's IPO perspective the FB IPO was a dud. The stock was overpriced...then the initial spike (the pump) wasn't much so those who bought in really didn't make much on the dump. The brokerage houses made more on transaction fees (they always do). I can recall the "golden age" of the dot com boom where a company would IPO at $10 a share by noontime it had run up to $50 and by the closing bell it was back down to the IPO. The corporates made their killing and the company eventually died on the vine and the "street" moved onto the next big thing...