Market Opportunities Unlimited (MOU) Blog

"Winning the Innovation Race" by Máire Geoghegan-Quinn - EU Commissioner

 

I just wanted to share with you EU Commissioner -Máire Geoghegan-Quinn's, ground-breaking Robert Schuman 2012 lecture, entitled, "Winning the Innovation Race" ...

 

...made at the 2012 Innovation Summit held in Brussels, Belgium, on October 12,2012.

 

(Máire Geoghegan-Quinn is the European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science at the European Union).

 

In the above speech she tells how the European Union is repositioning itself to become an innovation leader!

 

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn goes into detail re how EU companies and member-countries will win the innovation race.

 

If you own  a technology business or company, are a technology professional, technocrat or policy-maker in any country...you need to listen to/view this speech.

 

From it you can learn how to position your own company or country to win at innovation...

 

...have a listen!

 

...Or if you can't, a transcript of the above lecture is available from the Lisbon Council's website, here.

 

 

As usual, your comments are welcomed!

 

Thanks!

 

Gillian

 

Sources Include

 

1) Transcript of "Winning the Innovation Race" by Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, October 12,2012

2) EU Commissioner - Máire Geoghegan-Quin's CV, accessed December 6,2012

 

Facebook Employees to Sell 800 Million Shares on November 15

When the New York and NASDAQ stock exchanges opened last Wednesday, October 31, Facebook employees and pre-IPO investors were finally allowed to sell the 230 million shares that they could sell on the October 26, lock-up period expiry date.

The price they'd get ($21.11), would be 4% less than the closing price of $21.94 on Friday, October 26, but the shares went briskly, leaving them clear for other investors to lap up.

 

The next Lock-up Period Expiry will be on November 15, when 800 million shares are expected to be released.

 

Although Facebook founder - Mark Zuckerberg, has agreed not to sell his shares within the first year of the IPO, it is felt that Facebook committed a major blunder by allowing its early investors to sell their shares within the first year of its IPO.

 

Facebook's stock price over the past 5 months,  has not only decreased by 42%, but the price hasn't moved over the past five (5) days (meandering around $21.25).

 

News emerged on Monday, that Facebook  has updated its iOS app with gifts, a new messaging interface amd multi-photo sharing capabilities.

 

(Apple smartphone and tablet users access Facebook via the Facebook app on these devices. Apple's iOS operating system facilitates this).

 

But we'll just have to see if this will have any effect on Facebook's share price (in the short term).

 

(A major criticism for Facebook's stagnant growth within the developed world, is it' s late entry into the mobile market.

 

In June 2012, 57% of Facebook's users, used Facebook via their mobile phones).

 

(I'd like to thank Glen z Collection  for the use of her Flickr inset photo of Facebook's logo, above).

 

Gillian

 

Sources Include

 

1) Graph: Facebook Six (6) Months' Stock Price (June - November 2012), courtesy of Yahoo Finance, accessed November 7,2012

 

2) Article,"Facebook updates its iOS app with Gifts, new Messages interface, and multi-photo uploads", by Ken Yeung, TheNextWeb.com (TNW), November 5,2012

 

3) Article, "Facebook shares fall as lock-up period expires ", by Alexei Oreskovic, Reuters, October 31,2012

 

4) Article, "Here's The Part Of Facebook's Earnings Call That Caused The Stock To Crash", by Henry Blodget, Business Insider, August 3,2012

 

5) Article, "Facebook: Over 955 million users, 543 million mobile users ", by Emil Protalinski ,CNET.com, July 26,2012

Facebook Lock-Up Period Delayed by Superstorm Sandy

Facebook employees who were hoping to cash out some of their shares before yesterday's lock-up period, got their hopes dashed yesterday, as trading on the New York and NASDAQ stock exchanges was postponed, due to the passage of Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy.

 

(Every company with an IPO, has several  lock-up periods - periods during which employees and pre-IPO investors are allowed to sell shares. (This frees up shares for other investors to buy).

 

Once that period expires, then these employees and early investors have to wait until the next lock-up period to sell their shares.

 

The problem with the trading-day delay due to Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy, means that persons who wanted to offload their shares on Monday, have already sold them in theory, but in practice, can't get the proceeds from this sale, until trading resumes).

 

As of close of day on October 26,2012, Facebook shares were trading at $21.94/share. This represents a 42% decrease in Facebook's share price,  since it's IPO price of $38/share on May 18,2012.

 

However this price  ($21.94), is not expected to substantially change when trading resumes, so Facebook employees, I guess can breathe a sigh of relief).

 

In the meantime, in other Facebook-related news:

 

Citigroup has fired two (2) analysts for leaking private, pre-IPO information they gleaned from researching Facebook, to, in one case, a leading technology blog - TechChrunch.com and in the other, to a French magazine - Capital.

 

Citigroup was one of the banks involved in underwriting Facebook's IPO.

 

The Massachusetts Securities Regulations prevented underwriters from sharing written research on Facebook, until forty (40) days after the company went public.

 

This was supposed to ensure that investors didn't have access to insider information that would give them an unfair advantage, due to information gleaned from their investment bank (where they are clients).

 

Since Citigroup breached this agreement, they were fined $2 million by the Massachusetts Securities Regulators.

 

Gillian

 

Source Include

1) Facebook Year-to-Date Stock Quote (Information) via Google Finance, accessed October 30,2012

 

2) Article, "Hurricane Sandy Devastates New York City" via FOX43 WPMT - Pennsylvania Fox News, October 30,2012

 

3) Article,"Another Facebook Lockup Expires, But Sandy Delays Potential Stock Sales", The Wall Street Journal's Deal Journal, October 29,2012

 

 

4) Article,"City fires analysts, pays $2m fine over Facebook disclosure", By Liz Moyer and Matthias Rieker, Dow Jones Newswires, via Total Telecom, October 29, 2012

 

5) Article, "City fires analyst, pays fine over Facebook leak", by Christina Rexrode- Associated Press, via Yahoo News, October 26, 2012

 

6) Article,"Millions More Facebook Shares Coming Soon", By Matt Krantz, USA TODAY, June 3, 2012