Facebook's Stock Sale: Why You Should Care
Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies will buy $100 million in Facebook stocks from the company's employees, Facebook announced today. Most casual Facebook users will probably look at that news and shrug. Why should we care?
The news is interesting for two reasons. First, for pure sport. In the long term, though, this could be an announcement that unleashes a wave of innovation across the web over the next few years.
The Sport of Employee Stock Sales
Today's news is fun from a purely voyeuristic perspective. Facebook employees have twenty business days to make a decision: will they hold on to all the stock in the company they were granted when they were hired, hoping that it will become even more valuable in the future? Or will they take at least some money off the table now and gamble that they won't regret it later? Some will no doubt sell all the stock they own and leave the company.
How much confidence do Facebook employees have in the future of the company and its ability to make money? As one of the biggest employers of the Web 2.0 era, Facebook could be the bubble that breaks hearts like all those big companies ten years ago - filled with paper millionaires, some of whom didn't get out in time before everything was shown to be financially worthless. Or it could be the paradigm buster that proves things are really different today, that near universal reach online can be turned into profit.
Things are changing drastically at Facebook, the company is intent on pushing more communication between users into the light of public visibility. That may be the path to greater profitability or it may cause an implosion and mass exodus. This stock sale comes at a key turning point in Facebook's history.
There's a group of young people in Palo Alto that now have to decide whether to pull the trigger or to hold their cards for later. VentureBeat's Eric Eldon, who watches the business of Facebook closely, says to employees don't do it! Many friends, family and more cynical press will surely argue that employees should sell their stock while they've got the chance. What would you do? It's fun to think about from that perspective.
Escaping the Golden Handcuffs
It's not an acquisition by an even bigger company, but the availability of $100 million for employee stocks is likely to make at least a few Facebook employees rich and feeling footloose. Some will no doubt leave the company and found new internet startups.
Facebook employs many of the brightest innovators in social media and the prospect of those people starting new social networks, new communication technologies and new social media services is an exciting one. Many of them no doubt have lots of pent up ideas, but have felt trapped at Facebook because they've been waiting for their stock to be worth something and in demand. (The rest of the industry's gain in innovation may be Facebook's loss, too.)
We may not see a "Facebook Mafia" yet the way Silicon Valley saw PayPal alumni spread out and start or invest in companies like YouTube, LinkedIn, Yelp and others - but this could be a smaller version of the same dynamic. It could also be a small enough pile of money that the real Facebook Mafia either will or will not emerge later when a bigger windfall comes employees' way.
Those are the two angles of interest that we see in what's otherwise just two company's business announcement.
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Wow, exciting times at Facebook HQ and they just keep getting more exciting. I do believe Facebook really are the next generation internet and are here to stay and grow... as big as Apple, Google... I'm all over it when stock becomes available for us public folks.
Cheers,
Mari
THey should sell before its too late. You guys had an article a while back showing that Myspace was losing its members, the same thing will happen to Facebook. A few more years and it will be gone.
My advice is cash in before its too late.
The fact is that when a Russian company wants to buy shares of some Western company it usually means that the service is on a decline. Look at SUP buying LiveJournal – at the point when it became obvious it's just not in sync with all the innovations. So, yes, sell.
No doubt sell. If you really can, hold on to some but make sure to sell enough. I'm sure the price will go up but for how long and selling at the right moment could be quite tricky. With MySpace declining only means Facebook is going up so you could wait until MySpace goes a bit lower.
But of course I would sell :)
I just read an article about how CompuServe just officially closed their doors.
For those of us around back then, they were one of the major players about getting online, now I was surprised they were still around.
I feel the same about AOL.
Point being, the web evolves so much, as big as FB is now... something new will replace it.
I'd cash out.
Interesting article. Without details of how much employees will receive its impossible to advise one way or another. The more important question is when will they have another opportunity to cash in. If FB were to IPO in the next year or two, I think anyone who sold now would be left sobbing.
Its crazy as to how simple of an idea Myspace and Facebook are, I wish I had come up with the idea...oh well, maybe next time.
Sell our personal info from facebook to the Russians? Smart?
Facebook Shares Sales: One Good Reason, The Cost of Living
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