Facebook Inc shares slid below $29 to a new low on Tuesday, May 29 as nervous investors fled the company's shares, concerned about the social network's long-term business prospects and an initial offering price that proved too rich, Reuters reported.
Shares of the No. 1 social network fell 10 percent to an all-time low of $28.65, before closing at $28.84, or down 9.6 percent. Since its market debut at $38 on May 18, the eight-year-old company has shed approximately $25 billion in value – roughly equivalent to the market capitalization of Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter of Facebook's IPO.
Wall Street has harbored concerns that Facebook, while boasting nearly a billion users worldwide and dominating Internet social-networking, would have difficulty translating its growing presence on smartphones and other mobile devices into revenue. Rivals Google Inc and Apple Inc currently dominate the mobile arena.
Facebook's quest to monetize mobile is spurring widespread speculation over its next moves. Technology bankers say the company would benefit from tacking on mobile operating software through an acquisition of Norway's Opera, which has been on the auction block for a while.
The New York Times cited sources dredging up a longstanding rumor that Zuckerberg was pondering building a Facebook phone, and that an easy way to acquire the hardware expertise needed was to buy troubled Research in Motion.
The Blackberry maker said late on Tuesday that it hired J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets to help the company and its board with a "strategic review.
"They are clearly looking at smartphones and are trying to become more vertically integrated with their users," said Ryan Jacob of the Jacob Internet Fund. "They just don't want to be another app on Google's or Apple's platform."
"Speculation that Facebook is dabbling outside their main expertise and possibly planning another large acquisition may be unsettling to some investors," he added. "But I think options trading is behind today's drop in the shares."
