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Only market manipulation props up Facebook IPO at first day's close
Facebook Off to Faltering Public Start
By April Dembosky and Telis Demos
Financial Times, London
Friday, May 18, 2012
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c7bfd916-a113-11e1-9fbd-00144feabdc0.html
Facebook's life as a public company got off to a faltering start as technology glitches delayed the opening of trading and underwriters had to intervene to prevent its shares falling below the $38 issue price set on Thursday.
The stumbles, however, did not stop the company from celebrating the successful conclusion of the third largest initial public offering in US history on Friday. The $16 billion it raised trails only Visa's IPO in 2009 and a GM share issue in 2010.
Facebook's closely-watched Wall Street debut defied predictions of a spike in first-day trading and contrasted with the scene at its Menlo Park campus just two hours earlier, when founder Mark Zuckerberg pressed the Nasdaq opening bell and employees exchanged high-fives and hugs.
... Dispatch continues below ...
Prophecy Platinum (TSXV: NKL) and Ursa Major Minerals
Sign Combination Agreement
Company Press Release
Friday, March 2, 2012
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada -- Prophecy Platinum Corp. (TSX-V: NKL, OTC-QX: PNIKF, Frankfurt: P94P) and Ursa Major Minerals Inc. have signed a binding letter of agreement for a business combination through a proposed all-share transaction. In doing so Prophecy and Ursa have acted at arm's length and the transaction has been negotiated at arm's length.
Prophecy will issue one common share in exchange for every 25 outstanding common shares of Ursa. Ursa options and warrants will be exchanged for options and warrants of Prophecy on an agreed schedule.
Prophecy's offer represents a value of about $0.15 per each common share of Ursa based on Prophecy's share price of $3.70 as at March 1, representing a premium of 130 percent to Ursa's March 1 closing price of $0.065.
Prophecy is to subscribe for $1 million common shares of Ursa by way of private placement financing at $0.06 per share, subject to regulatory approval. Upon placement completion, John Lee and Greg Hall, current Prophecy directors, will be appointed to Ursa's board.
Prophecy thus will become a mid-tier resource company with a robust and diversified pipeline of platinum nickel projects, including:
-- The fully permitted open-pit Shakespeare PGM-Ni-Cu mine close to Sudbury, Ontario, infrastructure with near-term production capabilities.
-- The flagship Wellgreen (Yukon) PGM-Ni-Cu project with more than 10 million ounces of Pt-Pd-Au inferred resource. Drilling is under way and a preliminary economic assessment study is pending.
-- Manitoba's Lynn Lake Ni-Cu project with more than 262 million pounds Ni and 138 million pounds Cu measured and indicated.
For the complete announcement, please visit Prophecy Platinum's Internet site here:
http://www.prophecyplat.com/news_2012_mar02_prophecy_platinum_ursa_major...
After a series of technical glitches at Nasdaq delayed the start of trading by half an hour, Facebook's share price opened at $42.05, or about 10.6 per cent above the issue price, hit a brief high of $42.99, and then quickly fell back to the $38 offer price. It gyrated throughout the rest of day before closing at $38.23.
Facebook's underwriters, a group of 33 investment banks led by Morgan Stanley, also stepped in when the shares fell back to their original offer price and bought shares to keep the price from dipping further, according to a person familiar with the intervention.
Analysts at Morningstar said the company's record $104 billion valuation, set against the backdrop a weak stock market and a series of setbacks for Facebook's advertising business over recent weeks, may account for the lacklustre debut.
Several other highly anticipated technology IPOs rose much higher on their opening days, including 109 per cent and 31 per cent gains, respectively, for shareholders at LinkedIn and Groupon.
Some will see the modest rise as a coup for Facebook, leaving the company more money at the expense of day-traders and justifying its aggressive pricing at the very top of its indicative range.
"They found the perfect equilibrium point [for] the offering," said Manuel Henriquez, a Facebook investor. "Taking the money off the table gives them a lot of dry powder to go pursue acquisitions and allow the stock to trade a lot cleaner in the future."
The company has demonstrated to Wall Street throughout the IPO process that it will maintain as much control over its affairs as possible.
Mr Zuckerberg, in his trademark jeans and hoodie, even rang the opening Nasdaq bell remotely from Facebook headquarters. Allowing no reporters access to the event, Facebook controlled a video feed showing the chief executive flanked by Sheryl Sandberg, his chief operating officer, and surrounded by executives. Thousands of employees watched and clapped as he pushed the button, then erupted into cheers.
The first day of trading marks the official turning point in Facebook's 8-year history from private start-up ruled by "hackers," to massively valued public company, ruled by one chief "hacker."
Mr Zuckerberg maintains more than 50 per cent of the company's voting rights, ensuring his long-term control. After two hours of trading, his stake in the company was worth $21 billion. He personally sold $1.1 billion worth of his shares in the IPO, which he said will be mainly used to pay taxes.
Separately, in a sign of the mounting privacy battles Facebook will face as a public company, lawyers filed an updated lawsuit against the company in US federal court, seeking $15 billion in damages over allegations that Facebook improperly tracked the Internet use of its members even after they logged out of their Facebook accounts. The lawyers are attempting to consolidate 21 similar cases into one class action.
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Sona Discovers Potential High-Grade Gold Mineralization
at Blackdome in British Columbia -- 13.6g over 1.5 Meters
From a Company Press Release
November 22, 2011
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- With its latest surface diamond drilling program at its 100-percent-owned, formerly producing Blackdome gold mine in southern British Columbia, Sona Resources Corp. has discovered a potentially high-grade gold-mineralized area, with one hole intersecting 13.6 grams of gold in 1.5 meters of core drilling.
"We intersected a promising new mineralized zone, and we feel optimistic about the assay results," says Sona's president and CEO, John P. Thompson. "We have undertaken an aggressive exploration program that has tested a number of target zones. Our discovery of this new gold-bearing structure is significant, and it represents a positive development for the company."
Sona aims to bring its permitted Blackdome mill back into production over the next year and a half, at a rate of 200 tonnes per day, with feed from the formerly producing Blackdome mine and the nearby Elizabeth gold deposit property. A positive preliminary economic assessment by Micon International Ltd., based on a gold price of $950 per ounce over eight years, has estimated a cash cost of $208 per tonne milled, or $686 per gold ounce recovered.
For the company's complete press release, please visit:
http://www.sonaresources.com/_resources/news/SONA_NR18_2011-opt.pdf
