{"id":11786,"date":"2012-05-08T01:17:30","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T23:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=11786"},"modified":"2012-05-08T10:27:08","modified_gmt":"2012-05-08T08:27:08","slug":"facebooks-zuckerberg-kicks-off-roadshow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/11786\/facebooks-zuckerberg-kicks-off-roadshow\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook’s Zuckerberg kicks off roadshow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facebook Inc<\/a> CEO Mark Zuckerberg<\/a> fielded questions about the No. 1 social network’s slowing revenue growth and its $1 billion purchase of Instagram<\/a> as he kicked off a cross-country roadshow to promote the company’s $10 billion initial public offering.<\/p>\n

Wearing his trademark “hoodie” sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers, the 27-year-old chief executive said he would do the Instagram deal again if he had to, according to attendees at the event.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of investors showed up for the presentation at New York’s Sheraton Hotel, which was closed to the media, on Monday.<\/p>\n

The world’s largest social network aims to raise about $10.6 billion, dwarfing the coming-out parties of tech companies like Google Inc<\/a> and granting it a market value close to Amazon.com Inc’s.<\/p>\n

The 8-year-old social network that began as Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room project indicated an IPO range of $28 to $35 a share on Thursday, which would value the company at $77 billion to $96 billion.<\/p>\n

The size of the IPO reflects the company’s growth and bullish expectations about its money-making potential as a hub for everything from advertising to commerce. Many investors say they expect Facebook to raise its offer price-range as the roadshow progresses from New York to major cities such as Chicago, Boston and San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Amid the hoopla of one of the most closely watched IPOs in years are persistent concerns about Facebook’s longer-term growth and Zuckerberg’s majority control.<\/p>\n

Zuckerberg, who will have roughly 57 percent voting control after the IPO, personally forged the deal to acquire mobile app maker Instagram in a matter of days last month with little involvement from Facebook’s board of directors, according to media reports.<\/p>\n

Asked about the deal by an attendee at the event, Zuckerberg said Facebook’s management had discussed a possible Instagram acquisition at length in several meetings. Facebook decided to act when it saw Instagram’s user data cross a “tipping point” from which they believed it would grow significantly, he said.<\/p>\n

He said Facebook moved quickly to strike a deal when it became clear that Instagram was open to being acquired.<\/p>\n

Zuckerberg was accompanied by finance chief David Ebersman<\/a>, who was wearing a suit and tie, and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Investors managed to ask five questions during the event on Monday, including a query about Facebook’s potential plans to enter China, the world’s largest Internet market by users.<\/p>\n

Zuckerberg noted that Facebook was blocked in China – a situation experienced by several popular U.S. websites such as YouTube<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>. Sandberg added that the company would be willing to sit down with Chinese government officials and discuss partnerships in the country.<\/p>\n

Facebook’s emergence as a cultural phenomenon whose beginnings were depicted in the fictionalized 2010 film “The Social Network” added a palpable level of energy and buzz to Monday’s event.<\/p>\n

One investor was overheard joking that the event should have been held in New York’s Madison Square Garden, home of the Knicks basketball team and a standard venue for rock concerts.<\/p>\n

Investors had formed a line outside the Sheraton Hotel about an hour before the roadshow started on Monday morning, as a nearby media throng awaited the arrival of Facebook executives and elicited inquiries from curious passers-by.<\/p>\n

“This is unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” said another investor who was at the event.<\/p>\n

Morgan Stanley banker Michael Grimes took the stage to begin the formal presentation as the audience of investors lunched on Cobb salad, ice tea and cookies, attendees said.<\/p>\n

With 900 million users, Facebook is challenging established Web businesses such as Google Inc and Yahoo Inc for consumers’ online time and advertising dollars.<\/p>\n

Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Herman Leung said in a note to investors on Monday that he expected Facebook’s revenue to grow 40 percent this year and 33 percent in 2013.<\/p>\n

He said the $28 to $35 range for Facebook shares was an “attractive” valuation that provided a “compelling entry point” for investors.<\/p>\n

In a separate note published Sunday, Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser put a $30 price target on shares of Facebook.<\/p>\n

“Our conversations with investors to date suggest that concerns around revenue growth and the absence of mobile monetization will linger for some time,” said Wieser.<\/p>\n

But, he added, “we would not be surprised if the stock trades up above the IPO price on retail interest in the company over the near term.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facebook Inc CEO Mark Zuckerberg fielded questions about the No. 1 social network’s slowing revenue growth and its $1 billion purchase of Instagram as he kicked off a cross-country roadshow to promote the company’s $10 billion initial public offering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9882],"tags":[25,45,155,1244,2682],"class_list":["post-11786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-active","tag-facebook","tag-ipo","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-roadshow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11786"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11845,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11786\/revisions\/11845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}